


Oh God Have Mercy On Me, I’ve Been Laying With The Devil

by Rogue21



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Deviates From Canon, F/F, F/M, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Manga Spoilers, Pre-Trost Arc, Romance, marco lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2018-11-20 14:25:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 30,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11337345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogue21/pseuds/Rogue21
Summary: Evelyn Carter has a crush on Bertholdt, unaware that he is harbouring secrets about his origins as they finish their training and are about to head to Trost for their first assignment. But it’s hard for Evelyn to even get close to Bertholdt without the watchful eye of Reiner who’s been instructed to keep her safe, whilst she gets to envy the unscrutinised relationship growing between Ymir and Krista.





	1. Hold Me Down Under Holy Water

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is mostly inspired by the song 'Oh Lord' by In This Moment, so some of the chapter names will sometimes reference some of the lyrics in their songs.

Waters bubbled in the lake as Evelyn burst from the water sucking in a deep breath. The sun was hot in the sky as she felt the coolness of the water get destroyed by the heat. She caught her breath back slowly and turned to Krista who was sitting by the pond with her trousers rolled up and her feet in the water softly kicking, Ymir sat next to her doing the same.

  
“How did I do this time?” Evelyn asked them.

 

“Four minutes, that’s pretty impressive,” Krista said.

 

“Remind me again why you’re doing this, it seems so…stupid,” Ymir said to Evelyn as she waded through the lake to get out.

  
“It’s a breathing exercise, Instructor Shadis said I’ll be Titan meat if I don’t boost my lung capacity and stamina,” she informed Ymir as she climbed out of the lake.

  
“Bullshit, you just want Bertholdt to see you soaking wet, and speaking of which, here he comes now,” Ymir said pointing in the direction of Reiner and Bertholdt who were walking over.

 

“Don’t tease, Ymir,” Krista said nudging her. Reiner walked over to Evelyn who shook her blonde hair a little to get some of the loose water out.

 

“Evie, Instructor Shadis wants to see you about trying out a run through the training ground again,” he said to her. “Why are you all wet?”

 

“Breathing exercise Reiner, where is Shadis?” Evelyn asked him, noting that Bertholdt was blushing a little as he tried to keep focus on her face and not her wet clothes.

 

“Main building,” was all Reiner said to her and pushed past her to sit down next to Ymir.

 

“I’ll see you later Krista, Ymir,” Evelyn said and began to walk back towards the training grounds.

 

“Bye Evie,” Bertholdt said abruptly causing her to stop. She turned with a smile and waved to him.

  
“See you later Bertholdt.” Evelyn grinned as she walked away. Bertholdt wasn’t much of a talker and seemed to keep to himself a bit, but the few conversations they did have always seemed to open him up a little more. It was no wonder Ymir was prone to teasing her seeing as she never left Krista’s side. She did want to spend more time alone with Bertholdt but it was proving difficult with Reiner’s constant presence and his need to stay near her at all times.

 

* * *

 

Evelyn found Instructor Shadis by the manoeuvre gear simulators with Eren who was getting more practice.

 

“Instructor Shadis, you wanted to see me,” she said saluting Shadis.

  
“Ah Miss Carter, getting you breathing exercises in I see,” he said noting her wet clothes.

  
“Yes sir, I have now reached four minutes for holding my breath underwater,” she answered.

  
“Very good, alright, here is your training 3D manoeuvre gear you will have ten minutes to clear out twenty Titans if you can do that, you’ll be well on your way to graduating in the top ten, dare I say it…you could be in the top five,” Shadis said handing her the training gear.

  
“Yes sir, thank you sir, I will do my best sir.”

 

“Excellent, Arlert stay and help Yeager while I time Miss Carter here,” Shadis commanded.

  
“Yes sir!” Armin answered with a salute. Evelyn followed Shadis towards the small wooded training area which had twenty titan dummies set up.

 

“Alright Carter, time begins now!” Shadis said starting to time with a pocket watch. Evelyn shot two wires out and began to fly through the woods. She flipped and twirled, spinning to each kill and boosting further and higher to get better angles. Another spin, another kill, a back flip and down onto a dummies neck cutting the nape clean, a leap and pin down and then more graceful twirls. Every kill was one less Titan to threaten humanity. It was all thanks to the Colossal Titan.

 

“The Colossal Titan?” she whispered as she hit the last dummy and landed on the ground. Where had that thought come from? Then she remembered that day, about to board the boat as the Colossal Titan looked down at the people of Shiganshina fleeing in terror and she wasn’t afraid. Eren was afraid of that Titan it had killed his mother, but she wasn’t afraid, all she remembered was…smiling at the Titan.

 

“TIME!” Shadis shouted breaking her thoughts as he approached her. “Six minutes and thirty-two seconds, I must say I am impressed you’ve surpassed both Braun and Leonhart’s times but Mikasa is still ahead of you by forty-five seconds, and remember this isn’t the summer festival so be a little more focused with the acrobatics, but you did good today, hit the showers and then head to the mess hall for dinner.”

 

“Yes sir, thank you sir,” Evelyn said saluting Shadis.

 

* * *

 

 

When Evelyn returned she headed to the showers first thing. The heat of the water was soothing as her joints relaxed and the fatigue from the time trial was washed away, but the thought of the Colossal Titan was still on her mind and she thought back to the night she and Eren fought over it.

 

_“That monster killed my mother!”_

_“At least you had a mother, I had no parents I was a goddamn orphan who was mocked by the stupid drunks we considered the Garrison.”_

_“And you think that justifies you not hating the Colossal Titan for destroying our home?”_

_“Home for you maybe, I didn’t have a home, that Titan did me a big favour and frankly I wish he’d kicked a roof onto you as well!”_

 

It was an ugly fight that led to them not speaking for several weeks, they only made up when Armin forced them to apologise, by then Evelyn has made friends with Krista who agreed with Armin that making up with Eren would be for the best. They agreed that they would never discuss the Colossal Titan again. Evelyn leaned on the tiles letting the hot water wash over her, and she slowly scrubbed herself with the soap. A knock on the door to the showers startled her and she scrambled to the stop the soap that slipped out of her hand from dropping.

  
“Who is it?” she called.

 

“It’s Reiner,” Reiner called from the other side. She turned off the water and wrapped the towel around her and walked towards the door.

 

“What do you want?” she asked opening the door to also see Bertholdt standing behind him. “Bertholdt…Reiner you know it’s rude to not mention he was also here.”

 

“I don’t mind,” Bertholdt said avoiding her gaze and looking down at his feet.

 

“See he doesn’t mind, Shadis wanted me to inform you that dinner will be ready in ten minutes and to make sure you hadn’t passed out,” Reiner informed her.

  
“Why didn’t he send Ymir or Mikasa or Sasha, why you?” Evelyn asked. Reiner smirked a little and puffed out his chest.

  
“He called me reliable,” he boasted. Evelyn didn’t believe it, throughout the three years they had been training, Shadis was always sending Reiner to fetch her for one on one training sessions and even forced them to pair up during the winter training. If anything she thought maybe Reiner was keeping an eye on her at his request.

 

“Well give me a moment to change and then you can escort me to dinner like the weird bodyguard you are,” Evelyn said and shut the door in his face. “Unbelievable,” she murmured as she walked over to her clothes to get changed.

 

* * *

 

 

When she had changed Reiner escorted her to the mess hall with Bertholdt in tow.

 

“So how did your training with Shadis go?” Bertholdt asked her as Reiner opened the door for her.

  
“I killed twenty Titan dummies in six minutes and thirty-two seconds, I beat Reiner and Annie’s times, but I still need to beat Mikasa especially if I want to make the top five,” Evelyn replied.

  
“You’re the second fastest in the class, that’s amazing,” Bertholdt exclaimed as they sat down near Annie, Krista and Ymir. Reiner walked over to Eren, Mikasa and Armin and sat down near them.

 

“Hey, her majesty returns,” Ymir said sarcastically.

  
“I think you’re referring to the wrong person Ymir,” Evelyn retorted.

 

“No I am referring to you Evie, where’s your personal bodyguard?” she asked.

  
“Shut up, I’d rather Reiner not be my personal escort everywhere,” Evelyn said. “We’re graduating soon, so I am hoping for the love of the walls that he doesn’t follow me into the Scouts, he’s going to ruin my personal expedition I want to pitch to Captain Levi.”

 

“What’s that?” Krista asked.

  
“I want to launch an expedition to find the Colossal Titan,” Evelyn admitted. Bertholdt suddenly choked on his glass of water sending himself into a coughing fit whilst Ymir laughed loudly.

  
“You’re crazy Carter, you’re going to go past the walls and look for the biggest Titan around and do what ask him for a smooch?” Ymir said mockingly making a kissing face at her.

 

“No,” Evelyn said as she hit Bertholdt hard on the back.

  
“Thanks,” he said as his breathing returned to normal.

 

“You and your Titan fantasies Evie, oh Mister Colossal you’re so big,” Ymir said mockingly again.

 

“Fine laugh at me, but I am going to find that Titan, he’s sixty metres high without any skin, that’s not hard to miss.”

 

“What if the Titan’s already gone, it’s a big world out there,” Bertholdt told her.

  
“I agree with Bertholdt on this one I’d give it up before you even start,” Reiner said sitting beside her suddenly. Evelyn scowled at him as he pushed a baked potato towards her.

 

“You need to eat, tomorrow I’m taking you hiking to build more stamina,” he told her.

  
“Yes dad,” she said sarcastically prompting more laughter from Ymir. “What time are we leaving tomorrow then?”

 

“Dawn, Bertholdt you’ll be staying behind, Shadis instructed that it’s just me and Evelyn going on the hike,” Reiner said and began to eat his own dinner. Evelyn reluctantly ate her potato, annoyed by Reiner and his need to watch her every move. Graduation could not come fast enough and she was dreading the next morning.


	2. So Tell Me How Did You Lose Yourself At Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evelyn and Reiner go hiking in the woods.

Evelyn was awake and ready before dawn was about break. She had very little time before Reiner would arrive to take them on their hike. Quietly she left the dorm and walked outside into the quiet of the training yard to see Bertholdt waiting near the manoeuvre gear simulators. She grinned and ran over to him, he was wearing that blue sweater again the one that brought out the colour of his eyes.

 

“Hi, he’s not awake is he?” she asked Bertholdt as she approached him.

  
“No, he was still asleep when I left, did you sleep well?” he asked her.

 

“I did, thanks for asking, it’s a shame we can only get these little moments together,” she said.

  
“I know, how about after your hike with Reiner, you come find me and we’ll do something together, he’d have to let you,” Bertholdt suggested to her. She smiled at the idea, she’d kiss him if she wasn’t afraid of Reiner catching them.

  
“I’d like that,” she said. She inched closer to him in the hopes of one kiss, suddenly the sound of a door slamming startled them. “Shit, go, I’ll find you tonight.” She pushed Bertholdt and he ducked behind a rock. Reiner approached Evelyn with a backpack and two ski poles.

  
“Are you ready?” he asked handing her one of the poles.

  
“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Evelyn said. She glanced towards the rock where Bertholdt was hiding, she saw him peek over and wave and she waved back and followed Reiner towards the woods on the edge of the training camp.

 

* * *

 

 

By mid-morning they had hiked quite a way into the woods and Evelyn could feel her stomach growling incessantly for food. No food until they reached the summit, Reiner had said, takes sips of water from your canteen to stave off hunger, Reiner said, the faster we walk the sooner you’ll eat, Reiner said. She was close to flinging her canteen at his head. She stopped walking and sat down on a rock hoping Reiner would keep on walking and not noticed she’d stopped.

 

“We’re not stopping,” Reiner said.

  
“God dammit,” Evelyn muttered and stood up. “How far are we to the summit?”

 

“Not too far, see that light breaking through, that’s the summit,” Reiner said pointing ahead. Evelyn marched past Reiner and towards the breaking light, thinking about later on in the day when she could spend time with Bertholdt. She picked up the pace slowly turning into a run as she ran the path. Reiner began to run as well.

 

“Slow down,” he called after her. Evelyn ignored him as the breaking light got closer and closer.

 

“Almost there,” she whispered to herself as she ran past the trees and came to the summit. She stopped, the breath caught up in her throat as she gazed at the view before her. Lush greenery, the shining lake, the mountains in the distance. “Wow.”

 

“Nice view isn’t it, well we reached the summit, I’m sure you’re hungry,” Reiner said sitting down on the floor and opening up his backpack.

 

“Yes, I am,” Evelyn said and sat down as well still taking in the view. Reiner handed her some food and together they ate and took in the view. It was a moment where she could tolerate Reiner but she still didn’t understand why he wanted to go on a hike with her. She wouldn’t have minded hiking with Reiner if Bertholdt came along too, his presence made Reiner’s tolerable. She spotted in the distance the ruins of what appeared to be a castle and then started laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?” Reiner asked as he peeled his apple.

  
“I was just thinking about something I told Krista the other day,” Evelyn replied.

 

“Oh really, what made it funny?”  


“Well we were discussing unconventional ways to kill Titans, she suggest to hit one Titan with another Titan, but I said you’d need to be able to pick up the first Titan in order to hit the second Titan,” she began.

 

“Obviously, you’d need…a third Titan in the mix with the strength to pick up a Titan,” Reiner commented.

  
“So I suggested Castle Smashing,” Evelyn said. Reiner paused and stared at her confused.

 

“Castle Smashing?”

 

“Castle Smashing, you lure a group of Titans to castle loaded with gunpowder, you light a fuse and then…BOOM, buried under a castle giving plenty of time for an ambush,” Evelyn said. Reiner continued staring at her, his knife sitting in the apple.

 

“That…that wouldn’t work, where would the fuse be?” he asked her. Evelyn opened her mouth to answer but then stopped, where would the fuse go?

 

“I don’t know…dammit Reiner you ruined Castle Smashing,” she said turned away from him. Reiner went back to peeling his apple.

 

“Typical,” muttered to himself and took a bite.

 

“And what does that mean?” Evelyn asked him.

 

“It means, how predictable, I annoyed Evelyn as always,” Reiner replied annoyed with her.

  
“You weren’t always annoying, you just got annoying when you started treating me the way Mikasa treats Eren, like I’m some fragile thing that needs to be protected all the time, for thirteen years I had no one to protect me, certainly not Hannes as much as he tried,” Evelyn said. Reiner blinked in surprise, perhaps he had been too overbearing but he had to be, it was his job.

  
“I’m sorry if you feel that way, I can ease back a little if that makes you feel better,” he said.

  
“I’d appreciate that,” Evelyn said. They ate in silence looking at the view before them and when they were done, they walked back to the training camp.

 

* * *

 

Sunset was descending when they returned and Evelyn spotted Bertholdt getting pummelled by Annie in hand-to-hand combat. She glanced at Reiner who nodded.

 

“Go, I’ll find you when it’s time for dinner,” he said. She smiled and passed the ski pole back to him and walked over to Annie and Bertholdt.

 

“Give it up Bertholdt, you’re never going to beat her,” she said as Annie let him and brushed her hands on her trousers.

  
“She’s right,” Annie agreed. “How did hiking with Reiner go?”

 

“Tiring but it paid off in the end, the view was nice and he agreed to ease up on the whole trying to protect me all the time,” Evelyn replied.

 

“Does that mean we can spend time together some more?” Bertholdt asked.

  
“I think so,” she replied. Bertholdt’s eyes seemed to light up a bit at her answer.

  
“Let’s do something now then, we’ve got time until dinner,” he suggested.

 

“I’d love to,” Evelyn said. Annie smirked at the two of them and turned to walk away.

 

“I’ll make sure to inform Reiner,” she said and chuckled to herself.

 

* * *

 

Evelyn and Bertholdt found a spot near the dorms where they could sit and talk. He told her about the training he did that day and his new time running the time trial and she relayed to him the entirety of the hike and how Reiner ruined her Castle Smashing idea for ambushing Titans.

 

“I think it would work, providing there is a quick escape route for the person lighting the fuse,” Bertholdt said.

  
“That’s what I thought,” Evelyn stretched out her arms, feeling all her joints tighten and then relax. “I’m just glad I got to spend with you, it was all I kept thinking about during the hike, whenever I wanted to stop I thought of you and I just kept walking.” Bertholdt blushed at her words.

 

“I did wonder when you were going to return, but then Ymir told me to ‘get a grip’,” he said.

 

“That’s just Ymir, you heard her and her Colossal mocking yesterday, ‘oh Mister Colossal you’re so big’ like she can talk following Krista around like she’s some sort of Goddess,” Evelyn said.

  
“I get why she does it, wouldn’t you want to stay close to someone who you can open up to?” Evelyn looked at Bertholdt who was blushing some more, his cheeks a dark shade of pink, and she giggled.

  
“I guess…,” she trailed off forgetting what she was going to say and stared at him, her eyes switching between his lips and his eyes. “On the other hand,” she said and then leaned in and kissed him. Bertholdt’s eyes widened for a moment and then he closed them, sinking into the kiss and slowly moving his hand up towards her cheek. It was a good kiss, even Evelyn was surprised at how easy Bertholdt eased into it. She didn’t want it to end, until she heard from across them.

 

“Go Carter!” Bertholdt pulled back from her startled to see Ymir and Krista waving to them.

 

“Well that was nice while it lasted, let’s find Reiner before he finds me,” Evelyn suggested.

  
“Please,” Bertholdt said embarrassed that they were watching them, of course his first kiss with Evelyn had to be ruined by Ymir.


	3. Once Upon A Time, There Was A Nasty Little Piggy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reiner talks with Shadis about Evelyn's training rank, whilst Evelyn has a nightmare.

Reiner sat in Shadis’s office waiting for his Instructor to return and report to him the results of the hike. The final exams were three days away and he still wasn’t sure if Evelyn would be able to rank in the top 5 beside him.

 

“Braun, good to see you, how did the hike with Carter go?” Shadis asked sitting down at his desk.

  
“Very well sir, we made the summit by noon,” Reiner replied.

  
“Very good and did you discuss with Carter what we talked about?”

 

“We…no sir, I did not,” Reiner answered. Shadis’s brow furrowed a little and he took a pencil and piece of paper and started to write.

 

“Braun, when you came to me three years and told me that you thought Carter was your missing sister I was sceptical, I had to be,” Shadis began.

 

“I know sir, you were right to be, she and I only share the same hair and eye colour, but when I saw her I felt it in my gut, sir, I need to ask you about her possible graduation rank.”

 

“Braun, Carter is impressive, her ability to kill Titans rival Mikasa’s in strength and speed but she won’t make the top five if she doesn’t boost her stamina for that extra edge, at this rate, she’ll be ranking behind Hoover maybe even Yeager if she doesn’t push herself,” Shadis said.

 

“I cannot allow that sir, you must ensure that she graduates in the top five,” Reiner insisted.

  
“I can’t ensure anything Braun, all I can ensure is that she’ll be in the top ten, look son, how can you be sure that she’s your sister?” Shadis asked. Reiner sighed and pulled from his pocket a tiny red band.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Reiner, did you know you have a twin sister?”_

_“I do?”_

_“Yes, when you two were born you were the most beautiful things I had ever laid eyes on, but…something happened about a year after.”_

_  
“What happened mummy?”_

_“Somebody snatched her away, they came into our home and took her before I had a chance to stop them, I tried to tell your father but…there was nothing he could do without them discovering he had children with an Eldian, so…all I could do was weep for her loss.”_

_“Where did she go?”_

_“I don’t know but I know in my heart that she’s still alive, perhaps alive in Paradis and you will know too, promise me Reiner when you’re old enough, you’ll go and find your sister find your sister Evelyn and bring her home.”_

_“I will mummy, I promise and I’ll make us Marleyan’s when I do.”_

_“That’s my son.”_

 

* * *

 

_“I have a request for this mission.”_

_“What is it Braun?”_

_“My sister was kidnapped by the Resistance and possibly taken to Paradis twelve years ago, I promised my mother I’d find her and bring her home, if she’s still alive, I’d like to search for her.”_

_  
“That’s a big request Braun, if you’re certain she’s still alive I’ll allow it.”_

 

* * *

 

“I feel it in my heart, my mother was heartbroken when she lost her baby girl, I made her a promise I would find my sister and bring her home,” Reiner said and pocketed the band. Shadis stopped writing, the pencil breaking suddenly.

 

“Okay Braun, I’ll ensure that she makes the top five, you’re dismissed,” he said. Reiner stood up, saluted and left the office. When the door was closed, Shadis sighed and leaned on his hand.

  
“What did you do Grisha?” he asked himself.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside Reiner found Bertholdt and Evelyn by the doors to the mess hall. Sasha and Connie were lounging near them. He breathed in slowly and then out knowing he would have to tell Evelyn the truth before she joined the Scouts. As he walked over he noticed Evelyn leaning into Bertholdt slightly, he smirked a little and chuckled to himself.

 

“Oh Evie,” he muttered.

 

“So what faction are you going to join?” Evelyn asked Connie and Sasha as Reiner approached them.

  
“I’m thinking the Garrison, if I could get a job manning the walls in one of the districts in Wall Rose, I could move my parents out of our village,” Connie said.

  
“I’m going to join the Scouts, I think it’ll be fun,” Sasha answered.

  
“I’m thinking of the Scouts too although Annie suggested I join her in the Military Police,” Bertholdt said.

 

“Military Police would be good, but in the Scouts we’d be riding horses and taking out Titans,” Evelyn said.

  
“And you’ll get to look for the Colossal Titan right, Ymir told us, only she said ‘Evie just wants to find the Colossal Titan to smooch it’ is that true?” Sasha asked.

 

“You can’t smooch a Titan Sasha, besides I know what Ymir is planning, she’s going to go wherever Krista goes,” Evelyn answered.

 

“I don’t think the Scouts would be ideal for you, we could all join the Military Police together, we’d be in the interior away from the Titan’s,” Reiner suggested. Evelyn glanced at Reiner and shook her head.

  
“No, I want to join the Scouts,” Evelyn said. There would be no convincing her, not if he wanted to bring her home.

 

“Well then…we’ll join you in the Scouts, won’t we Bertholdt,” Reiner said.

 

“Oh…um, yeah, we could,” Bertholdt said quietly. Evelyn stood up and stared down at Reiner.

  
“You can do whatever you want Reiner, but I am joining the Scouts, you can’t be my babysitter forever you know,” she said and walked away.

 

“Actually I can,” Reiner muttered to himself.

 

* * *

 

 

The rest of the evening was relatively calm for Evelyn, she had dinner with Bertholdt, Ymir, and Krista who spent most of it trying to make up a nickname for the two of them. When it came for lights out, Evelyn struggled to sleep, staring up at the ceiling listening to the loud snores of Sasha from across the dorm. She turned on her side and closed her eyes and focused on the thought of the upcoming final exam. Soon, it would be done soon.

 

_“Help me!”_

_“Someone please, she’s just a baby I can’t protect her!”_

_“Dammit why did I agree to bring you with me?”_

_“HELP SOMEONE PLEASE!”_

“Help!” Evelyn cried suddenly as she was jolted awake by Mikasa.

  
“Calm down Evie, it’s alright, you were having a nightmare,” she said trying to calm her down.

  
“No, no I was helpless and there were Titans and…and…I don’t remember, but there was someone screaming for help,” Evelyn said. It was a familiar voice, at least she thought it was.

 

“It was just a dream Evelyn, Eren still has dreams like that,” Mikasa told her.

  
“I’m not like Eren, Mikasa, I don’t need protecting, I just…I don’t know why but that didn’t feel like a dream,” Evelyn said and lay back in her bed.

 

“Maybe you should talk to Reiner in the morning.”

 

“No! No I’m not telling Reiner anything about this,” Evelyn said, Reiner was the last person to know about her sudden nightmare. Evelyn struggled to sleep for the rest of the night, she didn’t want to have that dream again of the Titans and the screaming person and her staring up at the sky, arms reaching out but unable to grab anything.

 

* * *

 

 

It was raining the next morning which meant prep for the written exam and staying indoors all day. Bertholdt had managed to save Evelyn a seat next to him in the study room so they could work together, but the dream still sat in her mind.

 

“Are you okay Evie, you seem distracted?” he asked her after she stumbled over another theory question.

 

“No I’m just…Sasha’s snoring kept me awake last night,” she said.

 

“Well, if you need a nap I won’t tell anyone,” he suggested. She laughed and gave him a peck on the lips.

 

“No I’ll be fine, just knowing that you’re here with me and Reiner is studying next door is good enough, I’m surprised he agreed to it,” she replied.

  
“In that case, let’s take a break, I feel like if I have to read the five ways to take out an abnormal again, my head is going to fry,” Bertholdt said shutting his book.

 

“Mine too and I think Jean fell asleep about five minutes ago,” Evelyn said pointing to Jean, the only other person in the room who had his head on his book.

 

“Perfect,” he said. Evelyn wasted no time going in for a kiss with Bertholdt, she gripped at the collar of his sweater whilst he wrapped his arms around her. It was slightly awkward trapped between the tables but she didn’t mind.

  
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now,” she muttered against his lips as he tried to catch a breath.

  
“You don’t think Jean will wake up?”

 

“He seems pretty out of it, so we should be fine.” It was a satisfying answer for Bertholdt and he kissed her again, pulling her a little closer so that she was almost in his lap. Be careful, he thought to himself, don’t go too far, too fast. He tightened his grip on a little, his hand dangerously close to the hem of her shirt, it would be so easy to just slip one hand under. But he was still aware that Jean was in the room. A sudden flash of lightning and crash of thunder startled the both of them and Evelyn pulled away from Bertholdt and turned to the window, forked lightning streaked the sky and she felt her heart thump loudly against her chest.

 

“What!” Jean cried waking up. Seeing it was just a storm, Evelyn breathed out and sighed. Every single storm was the same for her.

  
“It’s just a storm,” she said sadly. It was always just a storm. Never the flash of lightning from that day. “I think we’ve done enough studying for now, let’s try and get to the mess hall for lunch,” she suggested standing up.

  
“Sure, I’m pretty hungry, breakfast was quite underwhelming,” Bertholdt agreed, he looked down at his sweater where Evelyn had been holding on and saw it was rather unkempt, he straightened it and stood up. “I’ll get Reiner and we can eat together, he’s probably read the book over three times by now.”

 

“I hope not,” Evelyn remarked.

 

“You guys go ahead I’ll just stay…,” Jean muttered his head hitting the book again.


	4. All These Years Beneath My Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graduation day has arrived, but on the way to Trost Berholdt begins to develop a fever.

Graduation day. Evelyn was glad the day had arrived and even more so when she saw her rank. First was Mikasa, obviously, but she was second, third was Reiner and Bertholdt was fourth. But she had done it, she made the top ten. Reiner seemed more pleased than she was about her ranking, saying how he always knew she’d make it. She didn’t mind all the praise from Reiner for making second rank, when he was third, but she did wonder if maybe he had something to do with her ranking so high when her estimate was sixth at best.

 

“Now we can all join the Military Police together, think about it, you me, Annie, and Bertholdt, it’ll be great,” Reiner said that evening during the celebration party.

 

“I want to at least get a year in the Scouts first, get some Titan kills under my belt and shove it in the faces of those in the interior,” Annie said.

 

“That’s not a bad idea, being top ten, we’ve always got a spot if we want it,” Evelyn agreed.

  
“So you’ll think about?” Reiner asked her.

  
“Sure why not Reiner, you always seemed pushing me to do my best, I’ll consider the Military Police, but first we have to get through the Trost assignment,” Evelyn said finally giving into his subtle pleading.

  
“Ah yes, giving us a taste of each faction before we get to decide, first up Garrison duty,” Reiner said leaning back in his chair.

  
“You know I hear in Trost, the night shifts are done alone because it’s so quiet there,” Annie said.

 

“I heard that too,” Ymir said appearing suddenly with her arm wrapped around Krista’s shoulders. “Perhaps Evie, you and Bert here could do some…night shifts together, if you know what I mean,” she said winking at her. Bertholdt lowered his head to avoid everyone seeing his red cheeks, he should have expected it.

 

“Well, why don’t you and Krista do a night shift together and let me know how it goes,” Evelyn retorted. Annie spat out her drink in surprise and started laughing.

  
“She got you there Ymir,” she said struggling to contain herself.

 

“You finally got one back at me Carter, I’m impressed,” she said as Krista giggled a little.

 

“That was funny,” she admitted.

 

“Come on Krista, let’s get some fresh air,” Ymir said and pulled her away. Evelyn smirked a little, she knew what Ymir really meant.

 

“Perhaps I should follow Ymir’s lead and maybe turn in, the transfer to Trost is tomorrow and we have to be prepared,” Reiner said. “We have to be up early.”

 

“Well you go on ahead, we’ll make another round and call it quits,” Evelyn said. Better to get Reiner away now so she and Bertholdt could get one last moment alone together before the transfer in the morning.

 

“Well, don’t do anything rash then, goodnight Evie, Bertholdt, Annie,” Reiner said and left the three of them. As soon as she saw Reiner close the door, she grabbed Bertholdt’s hand.

 

“Let’s go out the other door, we’ll see you in the morning Annie,” Evelyn said.

 

“Night you guys,” Annie replied turning away from them to go find Sasha and Connie.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside Bertholdt and Evelyn found a rather secluded area where they wouldn’t be found. Close enough to the main camp for some light but far enough that they wouldn’t be seen.

 

“Well we’re finally alone,” she said leaning back against a tree and undoing on the top buttons on her blouse. “What do you want to do?”

 

“I have a vague idea,” Bertholdt replied as he trapped her between him and tree. He tilted her chin up and gave a soft kiss at first, one hand gripped into the bark of the tree as she softly sighed a little and deepened the kiss some more. Evelyn pulled him close to her, wrapping her arms around his waist, one hand gripped on the hem of his shirt and the other clawing into his back. She wanted a little more, but it seemed too early for that, no perhaps wait until Trost. She felt a tingle of pleasure run down her spine as Bertholdt’s hand moved from her chin down towards her waist where it stayed, his pinkie finger locked in the belt loop of her trousers. She laughed softly against his lips as she slipped her hand under his shirt and let her hand explore. He was surprisingly warm, perhaps that explained the perspiration on even fair weather days. She ran her index finger up his spine causing a slight whimper from him.

 

“You like that?” she asked.

  
“It was…unexpected,” he said. She kissed him again, this time a single kiss that still lingered even after.

  
“Well…maybe you’ll hear something like that from me in time,” she whispered as she ran her finger down his spine, this causing a shiver through his body.

 

“I would…like that very much,” he replied biting his lip a little as he tried to contain that shiver. Evelyn chuckled and removed her hand from his shirt and ran it through his hair.

 

“Me too, we should get some sleep, we have an early start,” she said and gave him one final kiss. His entire body had gone from warm to hot and a sheen of sweat had appeared on his brow.

  
“Sleep well,” he said wiping his brow with his sleeve. She smiled in reply and walked away in the direction of the girls’ dorm leaving him all alone. Bertholdt breathed out and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

 

“I hate this heat,” he muttered to himself and began to walk towards the boys’ dorm.

 

* * *

 

 

Dawn broke on the camp as everyone stood waiting for the carriages to take them to Trost. Sasha pulled from inside her jacket several slices of bread, passing them to Krista, Ymir and Connie. Evelyn eyed her suspiciously, so that was why there was no toast yesterday morning, she thought to herself. Beside her Bertholdt was standing tugging feverishly on his collar.

  
“Are you alright?” she asked him.

 

“Sure, I’m just a little hot that’s all,” he replied, Reiner glanced at him and tugged him towards him.

  
“Keep it together for a few more days,” he muttered.

  
“I can’t, it’s too damn hot,” Bertholdt replied. Reiner rolled his eyes and thrust a canteen into Bertholdt’s hands.

  
“So sweat it out, just keep drinking and you’ll be fine,” he said. Bertholdt sighed and opened the canteen, taking a large swig. Just a few more days. He turned back to Evelyn and for a moment saw two of her.

 

“Evie?”

 

“Yes Bertholdt?” she looked at him with confusion. “What is it?”

 

“Uh…nothing I uh, I must be tired,” he said.

 

“Alright cadets, it’s time to move out to Trost, get into your groups and board the carriages,” Shadis shouted from the front as the carriages all pulled into the camp. Bertholdt sighed, they were leaving finally. Now he just had to last the journey.

 

* * *

 

 

It was a long ride to Trost, one that Evelyn was happy to be taking. As she shared the carriage with Annie, Bertholdt, Reiner, Krista and Ymir all discussed what to do when they reached Trost.

 

“I’m going to see if my wanted poster is still up on the tavern board, they can’t arrest me if I’m now part of the military,” Ymir said proudly.

 

“Actually the military can still arrest you,” Reiner pointed out. Her smile quickly disappeared and she scowled at him.

 

“I’m actually looking forward to my first trial night shift, just me and stars for four hours, no one to disturb me,” Evelyn said.

 

“A good thing to look forward too, nights can be so pretty when the skies are clear,” Reiner agreed. “I miss the clear nights back home.”

 

“What were they like?” Evelyn asked curiously, Reiner rarely talked about home, so this was something to hear.

  
“After it rains, there’s this fine mist that envelops the town, so fine that you feel as if you’re walking through thousands of tiny droplets that were suspended in the air. Walking through it at night feels really unreal, but when the skies clear and you see every star in the sky, you almost feel like you’re the smallest thing in the world,” he told her.

  
“On my tenth birthday, Hannes actually let me sit on top on the wall of Shiganshina during one of his night shifts. He sat and drank for most of it, but I felt like I was the tallest person around, it was the best birthday I’ve had in nearly nine years, I hope for my nineteenth birthday I get to experience it again on another wall, but that’s not for several months,” Evelyn replied.

 

“When is your birthday again Evie, I think you told me but I forgot,” Ymir said slightly bored with her story.

 

“It’s August first,” she replied. Reiner gripped the fabric of his trousers a little, the same day he was born, nearly nineteen years ago.

 

“That’s the same day as Reiner’s birthday,” Krista said.

  
“Yeah, Doctor Yeager had to write down an unofficial birth certificate for me when I lost my parents, he said the first of August was certain because my father took me for a small check-up with him before they left, he was a good man,” Evelyn told her. She liked Grisha Yeager, he was always kind to her when she came to him with a scraped knee or health problems. She asked why he couldn’t take her in and he said it was because she was a ward of the Garrison, she never really knew what the meant until Hannes said it meant she was 'an orphan girl who no one wanted to adopt.'

 

“How did you live as an orphan before Shiganshina fell then?” Reiner asked her.

  
“Doctor Yeager told me that my parents were Scouts who left me with the Shiganshina Garrison when they went off on a mission, but they were both killed, with no other family the Garrison were given custody of me, I was lucky those drunks were happy with raising an orphan,” she explained. Lies, all filthy lies, Reiner thought as he tightened the grip even more.

 

“That’s so sad, is that why you want to be a Scout, it’s in your blood?” Krista asked.

  
“I like to think so.”

 

“Hey look we’re here at Trost,” Bertholdt cried out suddenly as he pointed out the gate slowly coming into view. They had finally made it to Trost, now came the first assignment of guarding the walls for several days before moving onto the Interior to meet with the officials and declare their faction. As the carriages rolled into Trost, they all came to a stop and Shadis stepped off the first one and cleared his throat.

  
“All right cadets, form rank and follow me to the barracks,” he commanded. Everyone began to leave the carriages, but as Reiner helped Evelyn out of the carriage, he spotted Bertholdt looking slightly vacant.

 

“Bertholdt?” he asked with concern, this seemed wrong.

  
“Rei-,” he didn’t get a chance to finish. Bertholdt’s whole frame wobbled dangerously and he fell out of the carriage and hit the hard ground, unmoving.

  
“Bertholdt!” Evelyn cried as she leapt down to the ground to turn him over, his eyes were closed, but his forehead was burning. “He’s got a fever, Instructor Shadis, we need help!”

 

“Bertholdt, is he going to be alright?” Reiner asked kneeling down beside Evelyn as she rested his head in her lap. This wasn’t right, he shouldn’t have a fever his form could never allow for that, it wasn’t supposed to affect him like this.

 

“What’s going on here?” Shadis asked seeing everyone looking at Evelyn and Reiner as they tried to revive Bertholdt.

 

“He passed out and he’s got a really high fever, I think he’s seriously sick, we need to get him to a Doctor,” Reiner said.

 

“You two help me take him to the barracks, Ackerman, I want you to find Captain Hannes and let him know we have a situation, everybody else I want you to follow Ackerman’s orders, as first rank you’re in charge of them until I return,” Shadis ordered to everyone.

  
“Yes sir!” Mikasa answered. Shadis leaned down and grabbed Bertholdt, putting him over his shoulder and carrying him towards the barracks. Reiner began to follow but stopped and gestured to Annie.

  
“Annie, stay put until I find out if this is form related,” he told her.

  
“Are you sure it’s the steam affecting him?” Annie asked.

  
“I don’t know, he’s never developed a fever before, something’s seriously wrong and we need to make sure we’re not found out, keep everyone away from this,” he said and followed after Evelyn and Shadis.


	5. The Doctor’s Saying Hold On Tight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt's fever spikes as Reiner realises what's wrong and gets Evelyn to help him before things possibly get worse.

When they had reached the barracks and found Doctor Greenfell who was responsible for the Garrison troops, Bertholdt’s fever was getting worse, his breathing was becoming rapid and his heart was beating faster than normal.

 

“I’ve never seen a fever this severe before, when did he develop this?” Doctor Greenfell asked.

 

“I think it might have been this morning, he was complaining about feeling hot under the collar,” Reiner said.

 

“I need you to take off his jacket, shirt, and harness, I need to get a better read on his heart,” the Doctor said. Evelyn pulled off Bertholdt’s jacket and undid the harness around his chest, once it was free, he seemed to inhale and exhale faster. As she pulled up his shirt, she gasped.

  
“What is that!” She pulled his shirt over his head with Reiner’s help to see a light emanating from his chest.

  
“Oh shit!” Reiner hissed. The blood was circulating so fast it was causing his heart to glow through his chest.

 

“What the fuck!” Shadis cried out.

  
“What is this, I’ve never seen anything like it, I’m going to need to get the Captain down here, you two keep an eye on him and see if anything gets worse, Instructor Shadis we have to go now,” Greenfell said, he quickly left the room with Shadis, leaving his bag, as Reiner let out an angry sound and punched the wall.

  
“Shit, shit, this is bad!” he growled.

 

“What is this Reiner, why is his heart glowing through his chest?” Evelyn cried.

  
“I told him to sweat it out, why didn’t he listen?”

  
“Reiner what is going on?”

  
“Something has gotten into his system and sent his blood circulation into overdrive, I remember this happening back home to Marcel oh what did he do to overcome it.” Goddammit Reiner think! Marcel had the exact same symptoms, fever, glowing heart, and rapid heartbeat and breathing, only Marcel didn’t fall unconscious, but how did he get past it?

 

“We need to break his fever Reiner, it’s spiking,” Evelyn said, all those years of medical training from Grisha was finally starting to pay off. Reiner then snapped his fingers suddenly.

  
“That was it, Evie you’re a genius, when Marcel developed this, he cut open his hand and...no we can’t do that, he’ll destroy the barracks, unless we sedate him first, check the doctor’s bag and see if there’s a needle and some sedatives,” Reiner said as he looked for a knife. Evelyn grabbed the bag and found a needle and several small bottles of blue liquid.

  
“A needle and sedatives, we need to inject this into his bloodstream, he’s already unconscious but it should numb any pain he’s about to feel, Doctor Yeager taught me enough to know how to handle sedating a person,” Evelyn said.

  
“This better work or we’re dead, literally,” Reiner said as he found a knife in one of the drawers. “Alright once you sedate him by injecting it in the vein in his neck, I’m going to cut open his palm, when Marcel cut open his hand, he was able to stop the blood flow and break his fever, it should work for Bertholdt too.” Evelyn nodded and filled the needle with the sedative, carefully she stuck the needle into his neck and injected him with the sedative. Once the blue liquid was gone from the needle, she pulled it out and Reiner grabbed Bertholdt’s open palm.

  
“Hang in there Bertholdt, we’ve got this,” he said and sliced the center of his palm. Blood bubbled and spilled out as several small yellow sparks emitted from the blood as well as steam and Bertholdt’s breathing started to slow. The glow started to fade from his chest as his heart began to slow and return to its regular pace. Reiner sighed and grinned, he had done it and nothing bad had happened.

 

“We did it, we did it Evie,” he said. Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief and hugged Reiner.

 

“Thank the Walls you knew what to do, I don’t know what would have happened,” she said. Reiner hugged her tightly, so this was what it was like to hug your twin.

 

“It’s a good thing you were here too, you helped me remember.” Evelyn let go of him and turned to Bertholdt, he seemed to be sleeping soundly, his breathing now light and chest slowly rising and falling.

  
“He’s in here Captain, I don’t know what-….what happened here?” Shadis asked.

  
“We figured out how to break his fever,” Reiner said as he closed Bertholdt’s hand to stop the blood flow. Hannes and Shadis stared slightly dumbfound for a moment.

  
“How did you-?” Shadis asked.

  
“We sedated him using the blue sedatives you had and did a little bloodletting, it seemed to help him and break his fever, he’s going to be asleep for a while though, I had to inject him in the neck but what’s important is he should be fine now, right Reiner,” Evelyn said.

  
“How did you even know what to do?” Shadis asked her.

 

“Doctor Yeager taught me some medicine growing up and Reiner had a friend who experienced the same thing,” she explained.

 

“Grisha saves the day once again huh,” Shadis remarked. “Alright, you two can return to your squad and let Doctor Greenfell give Bertholdt a look over, I also want you to look at the night shift roster everyone has been assigned their night shift and the top three ranking are patrolling tonight.”

 

“Yes sir,” Evelyn and Reiner said together and saluted him.

 

“Alright, I’ll give you both a minute,” Shadis said. Evelyn looked at Bertholdt and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

 

“I’ll see you soon,” she whispered and followed Reiner out of the room back to where their squad was waiting.

 

* * *

 

 

It was around midnight when Bertholdt finally woke up and he saw Reiner leaning on a wooden beam.

 

“What happened?” he asked slightly groggy from the sedatives.

 

“You contracted Shifter Fever, probably the result of a virus that made its way into your system, you’re lucky Evie knows how to sedate a person, I made sure you didn’t transform when I cut open your hand, can’t have you destroying Trost now,” Reiner said.

  
“Oh my head,” Bertholdt whined as he lay back.

  
“She was really worried you know, but we made a hell of a team saving your life.”

  
  
“Where is Evie?” Bertholdt asked sitting up, he was still shirtless as he looked down to see a red mark on his chest from where his heart had been glowing from the blood.

 

“She’s about to start her night patrol after Mikasa, why?” Reiner inquired.

 

“I have to show her, I need to.”

 

“You don’t need to do anything Bert.”

 

“Reiner, I could have transformed in front of her, she needs to know what I really am,” Bertholdt insisted as he slowly got out of the bed he was in.

 

“No, you’ll jeopardise the mission,” Reiner said sternly.

  
“So I won’t tell her, but she has to see…even if she doesn’t know it’s me,” Bertholdt said as he found his shirt. Reiner sighed, he was going to have to reveal the truth to Evelyn as well about his secret so what was the harm in letting Bertholdt show her his true form?

 

“Fine, but do it on the other side of the wall and if she tries to attack, you vanish, I checked the sky and I think there’s a storm brewing, so you have cover, go,” Reiner said.

  
“Thank you Reiner, I won’t take too long I promise,” he said and grabbed his jacket and harness.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside on the wall of Trost, Evelyn was standing, staring ahead of her at the view. Mikasa warned her about a storm brewing nearby and to be careful. She was grateful for the warning but all she could think about was Bertholdt and what had happened with him.

 

“How can blood make your heart glow, it makes no sense,” she said to herself as she kicked a loose pebble forward off the wall. Reiner seemed to know what it was all about with his reaction, but that they were able to stop it by sedation and bloodletting seemed all too strange to her. She looked up at the sky and breathed in the cold air, a loud rumble was heard as she looked and saw the clouds overhead. She tapped her foot to a rhythm in her head and started to hum to it. Just as she opened her mouth to begin singing, a flash of lightning lit up the sky and steam filled the air. Quickly she tied herself down to the wall with her manoeuvre gear, once the steam had cleared, she saw the Colossal Titan staring down at her.


	6. The Pain And The Pleasure All Come Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Colossal Titan appears before Evelyn and surprises her with kindness instead of chaos.

Fear, happiness and shock. They ran through Evelyn as she stared up at the Titan, its eyes focused solely on her. Thunder roared and lightning flashed as it started raining heavily. She retracted the wires to her gear and took a step forward. Suddenly the Colossal Titan’s arm rose, she flinched and closed her eyes tight, was it going to smash the wall again? But then the feel of the rain stopped and she looked up to see its hand hovering above her, shielding her from the rain.

 

“You…you’re stopping the rain from hitting me, why are you doing that?” she asked the Titan. It said nothing but the eyes stared at her as if to answer her question. “Why aren’t you breaking the wall?” Again, no answer.

 

“I don’t understand, after all these years…why have you come back now?” It was ridiculous, asking questions to a being that couldn’t speak. But it was back, the Titan was back and Evelyn broke into a smile, it was back, it had found her.

 

“I wanted to find you, but…did you find me instead?” she leapt onto the Titan’ jamming the hooks into the muscle, her blades still sheathed. She climbed the muscle of the Titan and reached his shoulder and saw the eyes still trying to look at her. It was incredible, here she was standing on the shoulder of the Colossal Titan and it was doing nothing about it, not breaking the wall. The storm continued, loud rumbles and flashes of lightning and she explored the Titan, running around the back to look at the nape. She then grabbed onto one of the paler muscles beneath the eyes and got a better look at one of the eyes.

 

“I can’t believe you came back, there’s so much I want know,” she said gazing into the large green eye that was staring at her. Suddenly steam slowly emanated from the eye where a tear duct would usually be. She gasped and let go, leaping back onto the wall to see steam rising from both eyes.

  
“Are you…are you crying?” she asked the Titan shielded her from the rain again with his hand. She sat down on the wall, the large hand lowering as well to rest on the wall covering her. She stared up at the Titan, it hadn’t moved, it hadn’t breached the wall, it had simply shielded her from the rain and began to cry. More steam began to emanate from the Titan and filled the air around it and when it had engulfed the Titan…it vanished. Evelyn stood up to look around, the hand shielding her had gone, the steam was clearing and the Colossal Titan was gone.

 

“No, no, no come back!” she shouted into the air. “Come back please, don’t leave, there’s so much I need to know!” There was no answer, the Titan was gone.

 

“PLEASE, DON’T LEAVE ME!” she screamed, dropping to her knees and sobbing loudly, her cries drowned out by the sound of the rain.

 

* * *

 

 

Down on the wall, Bertholdt clung to it with his manoeuvre gear, tears streaming from his face as he heard her cries.

 

“I’m sorry Evie,” he said through tears as he ran along the wall to get back inside without being caught. She seemed so happy to see him in his Colossal Form, trying to understand him, trying to ask him questions he desperately wanted to answer. But he couldn’t, the Colossal Titan wasn’t built for conversations, just defence. But how he wished he could have spoken to her in that form. He made it back into Trost safely and found Bertholdt waiting for him by the door to the barracks.

 

“Well?” was all he said as Bertholdt approached him and felt the surge of more tears.

  
“I…I did it and she…,” Bertholdt couldn’t finish as he broke down in more tears. He could still hear her in his head.

 

“Did she try to attack you?” Reiner asked but Bertholdt shook his no.

  
“No, she wasn’t afraid of me, I destroyed her home five years ago and all she could do was look at me and smile,” he told Reiner.

  
“She…she smiled at you?” Reiner asked a little confused.

  
“Yeah…she smiled at me, she seemed happy, but when I reverted back to escape, she shouted for me to come back.” No wonder he was crying, Reiner thought. He placed a hand of Bertholdt’s shoulder.

 

“We’ll be able to tell her in time, besides, I have my own secrets I’m keeping from her too,” he told him.

 

“You do?” Bertholdt asked. Reiner nodded solemnly.

 

“Yes, get some rest, you’re going to need your strength,” he said and started to walk over to the lift to take him up the wall. Bertholdt opened the door to the barracks and walked back to the room he had woken up in and climbed into the bed. His heart ached for the look on Evelyn’s face when he vanished. He wondered if her reaction would be the same if he told her the truth. It hurt to think about it, and he felt exhausted, the fever and his transformation had taken a toll on him, but he felt a lot colder now than normal.

  
“I can’t break the wall,” he muttered to himself and turned onto his side to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

On the wall, Reiner found Evelyn kneeling on the wall in silence, she was staring at the ground in silence. Something inside Reiner seemed to feel a pang, as if he could feel sadness.

 

“Evie?” he asked. She looked up at him, her golden eyes were red and puffy. “Are you okay?”

  
“He left…he found me and then he left again,” she said going back to staring at the ground. Reiner knelt down to see her fingernails bloody and broken.

  
“What happened, did you do this yourself?” he asked as he took a look at one of her hands.

 

“He came back Reiner, the Colossal Titan came back, I thought he was going break the wall but he didn’t instead he shielded me from the rain and he let me get a close look at his face, but…then he left suddenly,” she said, she didn’t want to cry again.

 

“What are you talking about, the Colossal Titan?”

 

“He came back,” she said to him.

 

“Are you sure you didn’t dream that the Colossal Titan came back?” Reiner asked her.

 

“No Reiner, he came back, he appeared in a flash of lightning and I got to look into his large green eyes and asked him why he came back, I’m telling the truth Reiner, you have to believe me,” she said as tears began to fall again. Reiner pulled her into a hug as she started to cry into his jacket.

  
“I believe you Evie,” he said. “I believe you.” For the first time since he met Evelyn, he finally felt like a brother to her. She pulled back from Reiner and looked up at him.

  
“But what are you doing here, my shift isn’t over,” she told him.

 

“I had this strange feeling that you might need company, and I guess I was right,” he said. The blood from her fingernails had stained his jacket a bit as she looked down.

  
“You sure are good at that, always finding me,” she said as she stood up. “Why are you always like this, always here?”

  
“Because I…,” because I’m your twin brother, he thought to himself, but he couldn’t say that, this wasn’t the right time. “Do you see how Mikasa is always near Eren, he can probably handle things on his own, but she is always there, I asked her why and she said it’s because she made a promise to Eren’s mother before her death to protect him, I guess I’m making the same promise as her.”

 

“But why Reiner, you don’t know me like Mikasa knows Eren, so why make that promise to yourself?” she asked. Reiner was silent, this was a question he couldn’t answer without her finding out the truth.

 

“I…I guess I can’t say why,” he answered and stood up.

 

“Oh…” not the answer she was expecting, she thought it was going to be some convoluted need for him to prove himself or something. “Well in any case, I should probably start a patrol now, I’ve wasted too much time,” she said.

  
“Let me at least stay, I can handle eight hours on the wall and Shadis and Hannes won’t have to know,” he said to her. Evelyn thought about it and slowly nodded.

  
“Alright, let me clean this blood up first,” she said going to the night patrol cache which had food rations, water and a small first aid kit. She took out a bottle of antiseptic and some cotton pads and began to clean the blood off her fingers. As she sat on the wall cleaning up the blood, she looked up to see the rain had stopped. The clouds began to part and fade and stars were shining, Evelyn gasped as the sky lit up the valley before them.

  
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered as she cleaned up the last of the blood and shut the cache box. She stood up and stood by Reiner as they looked up at the stars.

  
“It’s just like home,” he said. “I know this might sound odd to you, but may I,” he held out his hand to Evelyn. She gave him a curious look and slowly reached out to grab it.

  
“Alright, but just to let you know, I will tell Ymir about this,” she said. She would love this, Evelyn thought to herself. Together they held hands for a few moments as Reiner smiled and thought to himself, I found her mother, I found your baby girl.


	7. So How Can This Be, You’re Praying To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt and Evelyn share a very passionate moment after he has a heated argument with Reiner.

The next day everyone was on top of the walls doing basic cannon training, cleaning, refilling and preparing them to use on the Titans that were at the base of the wall. Everyone was relieved to see Bertholdt was okay, Evelyn especially. As they took a break from cleaning one of the cannons, Sasha arrived with a secret present.

  
“Hey guys, look what I stole,” she said grinning as she produced a large cut of pork.

 

“Sasha, you stole from the kitchens?” Mikasa asked her shocked, but not surprised.

 

“Yeah, I thought I could make us sandwiches for lunch,” she said going over to the day shift cache to store the meat.

 

“So you never said how your night shift went,” Ymir said to Evelyn.

 

“It was good, it rained during my shift, so I had to bear the storm, but it was a good shift…except for one thing that happened,” she replied. She wondered if she should talk about the Colossal Titan appearing, but then decided she’d rather see Ymir’s face when she told her about Reiner.

  
“What happened?” Bertholdt asked her.

 

“Well Reiner arrived during my shift, because you know he can’t stand to not be near me for some strange reason, so I allowed him to be there, I thought perhaps I could leave early, but then…he asked me to hold his hand,” Evelyn explained. Ymir burst out laughing leaning on the cannon for support.

 

“He wanted to hold your hand?”

  
“Yeah, I don’t know why, so I just let him, hand holding is harmless, I honestly thought he was going to cry when I let him,” she said.

  
“Does he hold your hand too Bertholdt?” Ymir asked him.

 

“No, no he does not,” Bertholdt answered. What secrets was Reiner keeping for Evelyn that made him act so strangely towards her and want to hold her hand? Ymir started laughing some more and then saw Reiner approaching them and started grinning.

  
“Watch this,” she said and walked over to Reiner. “Reiner, I want to ask you a very important question.”

 

“What is it Ymir?” he asked her bored. She then held out her hand to him.

  
“Reiner Braun…will you hold my hand?” she asked and started laughing. Reiner scowled at her and marched past her towards Bertholdt and Evelyn.

 

“That girl is nothing but trouble,” he said to them.

 

“Yes but let her laugh, I think she loves the entertainment of us lowly mortals,” Evelyn said sarcastically.

  
“Indeed, Bertholdt can I speak with you?” Reiner asked him. Bertholdt nodded and gave Evelyn a kiss on the cheek.

  
“You keep Ymir entertained,” he said and stood up to follow Reiner. Once Ymir had stopped laughing she then ushered Evelyn over to Krista and Annie.

  
“So Evie, enlighten us, tell us ladies here what it is about Bertholdt that turns you into a lady of the night?” Ymir asked her.

  
“Can I ask you the same thing about Krista?” Evie asked back. Krista blushed a little and giggled.

  
“You don’t need me to answer that, just look at that face,” Ymir said pinching one of Krista’s cheeks. “But I’m genuinely curious, and I’m sure Krista and Annie are too.”

 

“I’m not, but I can’t really judge her for wanting Bertholdt,” Annie said with side glance over to Armin who was talking to Mikasa and Eren. “Stupid Arlert,” she muttered.

  
“Well where would you have me start, he’s got legs for days, he’s sensitive, he’s super cute obviously and while he may be shy at first, there is an incredible person underneath, and he seems to really care,” Evelyn answered.

  
“And it only took you three years to finally grab him up, what took you so long?” Ymir asked her.

  
“Reiner happened that’s what, first it was training together and that was fine, then it was eating together and it was fine…and then we were paired up for the winter training, that’s when I realised Reiner was trying to be all protective of me, he even expressed his dislike of me and Bertholdt at first.”

 

“What do you mean?” Krista asked her.

 

“Well, when we were paired up for the winter training, Reiner carried my pack as well as his, he also made sure some of our paths were safe to cross and carried me across the wooden bridge despite telling him I could do it myself, when I told him I wished I was paired up with Bertholdt, he said that my feelings for Bertholdt should not get in the way of my training, that I’d start slacking and not graduate into the top ten,” Evelyn explained.

  
“She enlisted my help to talk some sense into Reiner, I told him to stop acting like such a dolt and just let them be, of course then he just stuck to Bertholdt’s side after that,” Annie added.

  
“After that I could only make small-talk with Bertholdt, I couldn’t even try to kiss him without Reiner always being there, that’s why it took me so long,” Evelyn said.

  
“So he was acting like you’re a frail girl who’s going to get her innocence stolen by the big bad boy, who is nothing but pleasant to you, sounds like he wanted you to himself,” Ymir commented.

  
“Gross Ymir,” Annie remarked.

 

“I don’t think Reiner sees me that way, I think he’s more interested in those of the male variety,” Evelyn said.

 

“So maybe he wanted Bertholdt all to himself,” Ymir then suggested.

  
“No, you don’t stick to someone so closely if you want someone else,” Evelyn pointed out.

  
“So he’s just obsessed then, that’s a pretty boring explanation,” Ymir said. Annie scoffed, she knew Reiner’s secret she figured it out rather quickly and agreed to keep it a secret from both Evelyn and Bertholdt. Annie looked over to Reiner and Bertholdt, he seemed to be angry at Reiner.

 

“What are they arguing about?” she muttered to herself.

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m not doing it Reiner, after last night I can’t,” Bertholdt said to Reiner.

  
“I don’t believe this, I told you not to go and show her your form, you never listen to me, if I tell you to break the front gate, you break the front gate,” Reiner growled at him.

 

“No!” Bertholdt snapped. Reiner glared at his friend, his fist clenched.

 

“You don’t sweat out your Shifter Fever, you transform into the Colossal Titan to show Evie, risking the mission and now you don’t want to begin phase two, well fine I’ll do it myself, I’ll carry this whole mission if I have to if you’re going to let yourself be weakened by this,” Reiner said and walked away from Bertholdt, he’ll drag him through this if he has to. Bertholdt glared at Reiner and returned to Evelyn.

  
“What were you two arguing about?” Annie asked him.

  
“Nothing, just…fucking jerk,” Bertholdt said with gritted teeth. Ymir blinked in surprise at his words.

 

“Such language Bertholdt,” she said shocked.

  
“Oh shut up Ymir,” Bertholdt then said to her with a nasty look that surprised everyone.

  
“Wow Bertholdt, what did Reiner do make you this mad?” Annie asked him. Bertholdt growled and pushed past them and leapt off the wall activating his gear. No one had ever seen Bertholdt this mad before, he wasn’t one to get angry, not even whenever Ymir teased him or Jean would make fun of his name. Evelyn knew something was up.

  
“Let me talk to him,” she said and followed after him. “Bertholdt wait!”

 

* * *

 

 

She followed him back down the wall back to the barracks, following him back to the small recovery room he still had to stay in. He dropped his manoeuvre gear on the table and sighed.

 

“I’m not weak,” he said.

  
“Bertholdt, what’s wrong, you’re never this angry?” she asked him as she closed the door.

  
“Evie… do you think I’m weak?” he asked her.

 

“Of course not, your strength is in your devotion to everyone around you, why, is that what Reiner said, that you’re weak?”

 

“Yeah, I’m not weak, I haven’t been weak for a long time, he doesn’t even realise the strength it took to…,” he stopped.

  
“To do what?” Suddenly Bertholdt kissed her, the force of it pushing her into the wall. She gasped a little but then embraced the passion that seemed to be riled up in his, their tongues fought to find each other as their hands started to roam. Evelyn dove her left hand under his shirt, whilst her right hand grabbed his ass and his hands seemed to go straight for her chest.

 

“Bertholdt,” she whispered as she let go of him and pulled jacket off and threw it to the ground. She grasped at her harness, furiously unclipping it and shaking it off as Bertholdt did the same with his jacket and harness. She wasted no time pulling her own shirt off as he pulled off his and he saw she hadn’t been wearing anything underneath.

 

“Oh,” he gasped as she fiddled with her gear, dropping it to the ground with a clang and undoing the harness around her waist. She wanted him now, now while they were alone. She finally rid herself of the harness and undid the front buttons of her trousers and slid out of them, she pulled her panties down stepping out of them and she saw he was fully naked as well now. Bertholdt then grabbed her and hoisted her up, her legs wrapped around his waist supporting her with his hands.

  
“Are we really doing this, right here, right now?” he asked through scattered breaths as her hands gripped his hardening cock.

  
“I want this, do you?” she asked him.

  
“I do,” he replied kissing her again. She grinned and felt pre-cum leak across her thumb, she spread it over the head and began to tease her opening with it, causing Bertholdt’s breathing to get heavier as she teased.

 

“Please,” he gasped as he kissed her neck.

 

“Alright,” she answered and slid him in feeling the full support that she hold onto him. He began to thrust as she responded with slight moans that were slowly getting louder.

  
“Yes,” she breathed, feeling him pressed against her sweet spot, a slow rising sensation filling her up.

 

“Evie, I…,” Bertholdt gasped as he continued to thrust, feeling his own climax approaching ever so slowly.

 

“Don’t let go,” she said as she grabbed the wooden beam above her head to hold on. Her moans were getting louder and she couldn’t stifle them, soon someone was bound to hear.

  
“I’m nearing,” he muttered against her skin.

  
“I’m close, oh Gods, oh Gods, oh, oh OH!” she cried feeling a bursting sensation in her abdomen that ran through her. Bertholdt cried out an angry sounding growl as he felt himself reach his limit and he began to come within her.

 

“Oh, Evie,” he whispered as he gripped her tighter and she let go of the beam and wrapped her arms around him, his sweaty body hot against hers.

 

“Bertholdt,” she sighed as she kiss his neck, still holding tight, his length still inside her. She didn’t want this to be over, she wanted to stay locked in this embrace. “I lo-,” she began but was too exhausted to finish her sentence.

 

“I know,” he said as he slowly withdrew from her and set her down onto her feet. She pressed her hand to the now pink mark on his chest and spread her fingers across it.

 

“I wish I could have made it glow again,” she said. You almost did, Bertholdt thought to himself as he leaned down to kiss her. “I uh…I think we better get back up to the wall, they’re probably wondering where we went.”

 

“Yeah, I really hope no one heard this,” Bertholdt said as he started to get dressed.

  
“There’s a chance someone heard,” she said. Just as Evelyn slipped back into her panties, the ground suddenly started shaking and she stumbled forwards into Bertholdt, a loud crashing sound was heard and dust seemed to fall from the rafters above them.

  
“What was that?” she asked as the sounds of panicking began to be heard.

  
“We need to move quickly,” Bertholdt said grabbing his shirt and quickly putting it on


	8. I Think You Ready, You Want A Show?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Armoured Titan has broken through the wall and now it's up to everyone to stop the Titans from overtaking Trost.

Once Evelyn and Bertholdt had dressed, although both slightly ragged and wearing each other’s jackets, they equipped their manoeuvre gears and ran out of the barracks to see a large hole in the gate of Trost.

 

“The front gate’s breached!” Evelyn cried as the two of them flew back up on top of the wall.

  
“Where the hell were you two the Armoured Titan just broke through the gate and vanished, Titans are starting to pour in,” Jean shouted at them.

 

“The Armoured Titan, was the Colossal Titan with it?” Evelyn asked.

 

“No just the Armoured Titan, there was this burst of lightning and it started running at the gate and smashed through before we could react, everyone has to get to the fortress to get ready for action,” Jean said.

  
“Let’s go then, come on Bertholdt,” Evelyn said.

  
“I’m right beside you Evie,” he said as the two of them began to fly towards the fortress. Damn you to hell Reiner Braun, Bertholdt thought angrily as they flew.

 

* * *

 

 

When they reached the fortress, everyone was panicking and getting ready to supply up. Annie spotted them and ran over to them.

  
“There you two we have to get ready to- why are you wearing each other’s jackets?” she said seeing Bertholdt’s jacket on Evelyn, long in the arms and back and seeing Bertholdt wearing her much smaller jacket, the cuffs of the arms halfway up his forearms.

  
“That’s not the issue here, where did the Armoured Titan come from?” Evelyn demanded as she spotted Mikasa and Armin approaching them.

 

“We don’t know, but Shadis is giving orders to keep the Titans at bay whilst Mikasa helps get the citizens out of Trost, you two are coming with my group as we have to keep the town center free of Titans, whilst everyone evacuates, so gas and blade up because when I find Reiner it’s go-time,” Annie said to them.

 

“Right, come on Bertholdt,” Evelyn said as she headed over to the supply of gas tanks and grabbed two canisters. Bertholdt followed, it was no use trying to get Evelyn jacket off as it seemed to be stuck to him.

 

“I can’t get your jacket off, the arms seem to be stuck,” he told her as he struggled to pull down the sleeves. Evelyn pulled at the sleeve but they seemed stuck so she grabbed a blade.

  
“Hold still,” she said and cut through the hems on the sleeves and ripped them off so it had turned into a very odd looking waistcoat. “Better?”

 

“I look ridiculous but yes,” he answered.

 

“Everybody move out!” Shadis ordered loudly from the doorway to the fortress. Mikasa bounced on ahead to get to the gate as everyone began to head to the center of Trost.

 

* * *

 

 

The center of Trost was now crawling with medium Titans including one abnormal already gripping onto the Clocktower. Evelyn saw one nearing and leapt and forward flipped with a twist as she cut the nape off and return to the roof.

  
“One down!” she said unaware of the Titan behind her with its jaws wide open. Just as it began to close its jaws, its choked and fell sideways as Bertholdt leapt down beside her.

  
“Make sure to be aware of your surroundings,” he advised her as everyone gathered on the roof.

 

“Alright everyone, I’m taking charge, Eren you and Armin go that way, Evelyn, you take Bert and go that way everyone else pair up and fan out, we need to keep these Titans at bay for Mikasa,” Jean ordered to everyone. Scattering like flies they began to target the singular Titans taking them out. Suddenly there was a scream as Evelyn saw Thomas get his legs crushed by the teeth of a Titan. She looked away from the spurt of blood and concentrated on the small one in front of her. She spun and sliced through the nape killing it and flew around the legs of the medium nearby and sliced through the kneecaps, causing it to fall forward.

  
“Now!” she cried as Bertholdt dived down and sliced its nape open. Suddenly they heard a cry from above as Reiner took down a third Titan and landed on the ground.

  
“Evie!” he called out to her and flew to the roofs.

 

“Reiner, what are you doing here, where’ve you been, the gates been breached,” Evelyn said.

 

“I know, but we can’t stay here, no matter how many Titans we kill, more are going to come through that gate, so we need to move fast,” he told her.

  
“Move where Reiner, we have a job to do,” Evelyn said as an abnormal leapt into the air. “Move!” she cried as they leapt out of the way and the Titan crashed through the building. Reiner leapt and brought down his blades upon the Titan.

 

“Follow me,” Evelyn ordered as she used a burst of power from the gas cannister and flew towards three titans that were gathered. Reiner and Bertholdt followed her and saw Annie flying towards the three of the Titans as well. Evelyn boosted herself into the air and stuck the wires into the neck of the tallest Titan.

  
“This isn’t the summer festival,” she muttered to herself and forward flipped and began to spin and slice through the neck of the Titan. Annie cut open the neck of the second one as Bertholdt sliced the third and the four of them leapt safely onto a roof.

 

“Is everyone alright?” Annie asked them. Evelyn looked up to see Armin kneeling in front of a Titan with a large beard, with Eren in its jaws trying prevent it closing.

  
“Eren!” she shouted as the Titan’s jaws snapped shut. She flew forward and with one arm grabbed Armin and pulled him back from the Titan. “Armin, Armin talk to me!” she said grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.

  
“He…he…” Armin couldn’t speak, all he see was Eren’s arm getting bitten off as the Titan swallowed him.

 

“Annie help me here, he’s shut down completely and the Titans are gathering,” she said seeing two more Titans approaching the roof.

 

“We need to get him back to Mikasa, Reiner, pick him up and follow us,” Annie said.

  
“Right,” Reiner said and threw Armin over his shoulder. They activated their gears and flew towards their group who had all reconvened on one of the roofs near where Mikasa had been protecting citizens.

 

“Mikasa!” she called out as they landed on the roof. Reiner put Armin down who was still silent and wide-eyed. “Mikasa, Armin’s in shock Eren…Eren…,” she didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

  
“Eren’s dead!” Armin suddenly shouted. “Eren died saving my life from the jaws of a Titan, he promised me we were going to see the ocean but…but…now he’s gone!” Armin started wailing loudly as everyone turned to see him. Evelyn looked at Mikasa whose eyes had glazed over, her heart broken.

  
“Mikasa, we were too late,” she said. Mikasa said nothing and suddenly flew off towards more of the Titans that were gathering. “Mikasa!” she cried and went go after, but Reiner grabbed her arm.

  
“No, let her go,” Reiner said to her.

  
“Let me go Reiner, she needs help,” Evelyn protested, but his grip was too tight.

  
“No Evie, you’re staying with us until we can get a read on the situation,” Reiner told her.

  
“Let me go Reiner, why are you always trying to protect me, I can look after myself,” she shouted at him as she struggled against his grip.

 

“No, I’m not going to lose you again, especially not to these Titans,” Reiner cried out pulling on her arm.

 

“Again?” What was he talking about? She could see everyone staring at the two of them, Bertholdt’s face full of concern for the both of them as she struggled against Reiner’s strength. “Let me go now!”

 

“I can’t let you go!” Reiner shouted at her.

  
“Why not!”

 

“BECAUSE YOU’RE MY SISTER!” Evelyn stopped struggling and froze. Everyone’s faces were filled with shock, Bertholdt’s jaw dropped slightly as Annie stood wide-eyed staring at Reiner.

  
“What did you say?” she asked him rather quietly.

 

“You’re last name isn’t Carter, it’s Braun, you’re Evelyn Braun, my twin sister,” Reiner said letting go of her arm.

  
“You’re twins!” Jean exclaimed staring at the both of them. It didn’t seem possible to him.

 

“What are you talking about Reiner?” Evelyn asked.

  
“Reiner, this isn’t the time-,” Annie began.

 

“You’re my twin sister Evelyn Braun, you were born on August first, eight thirty-one in a small town, you’re mother’s name is Karina Braun, the name of our father is unknown, you were kidnapped shortly before our first birthday and taken to Shiganshina, the stories that Doctor Yeager told you about your parents are all lies, you’re my sister, and I made a promise to our mother that I would find you and bring you home,” Reiner told her. Evelyn slowly backed away from Reiner towards Bertholdt.

  
“No, no you’re not my brother, I don’t have family,” she said scared of what Reiner was saying.

  
“But I am Evie, we both have the same blonde hair, the same golden eyes, we’re both left handed, we’re the same height of six foot one, we’re strong wa- soldiers who graduated side by side, when you smile you look like our mother and we both have-,”

 

“Stop Reiner, how can I be your sister, it doesn’t make sense?” she asked.

  
“I can prove it, you should have the exact same birthmark that I do on your left hip, see?” Reiner said lifting his shirt so she saw a small cross like birthmark just above his harness. She looked down and lifted up her shirt hem slightly and gasped. On her left hip was the same cross shape.

 

“He’s right, no, no this is insane, this doesn’t make sense!” she didn’t want to believe it, but all the signs were there as everyone stared at the two of them in this confrontation. She was his sister.

 

“It makes perfect sense,” Armin muttered. “You have similar facial features, although yours are more rounded than Reiner’s and there’s all the other things he said, I always wondered if that was the reason he stuck near you and it turns out I was right, but if you run now, you’ll be putting him in Mikasa’s place and we’ve already lost Eren.”

 

“Mikasa!” With her arm now free, Evelyn activated her gear and flew off in the direction Mikasa went.

  
“Evie!” Reiner cried as he chased after her. Bertholdt followed as they chased her through Trost, while trying to find Mikasa. Suddenly, Evelyn’s gas canister stopped and she dropped through the air and hit the ground. She looked up to see Mikasa kneeling on the ground and standing above them, a large titan with dark hair and glowing green eyes roaring out at the sky.


	9. I’m Dying Here Without You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt reveals himself the Colossal Titan and the squad plan to take back headquarters.

“Mikasa!” Evie cried out as she scrambled towards her along the ground. “Mikasa are you alright?”

  
“That Titan, it’s killing the other Titans,” she said staring up at it as the dark haired Titan roared and began to slowly walk away.

 

“Evie!” She heard Bertholdt yell as he flew near the Rogue Titan.

 

“Bertholdt watch out!” she shouted as the Rogue Titan swung its arm and slapped Bertholdt away from him. He flew into a building and hit the ground. “Bertholdt!” she screamed and ran towards him, ducking out of the way of the Rogue Titan’s feet as it started to move. She ran to him and saw him lying on the ground, blood seeping from his mouth.

 

“Evie,” he muttered as he coughed up blood.

  
“Bertholdt, are you okay?”

 

“I’ll be…fine but…you need to…hold on tight,” he gasped through struggling breaths.

  
“Why?” she asked. Suddenly lightning began to spark from him as he slowly and painfully climbed to his feet.

  
“You’re about to meet him again,” he said.

  
“Who?” Suddenly there was a blinding flash and steam erupted as Evelyn found herself sixty metres in the air gripping onto the chest of the Colossal Titan. She gasped and climbed up the Titan form to the shoulder and embedded herself in.

  
“Bertholdt!” she cried as the green eye looked at her.

  
“E…vie!” the Titan slowly spoke out. So it could talk. She looked down to see the Rogue Titan beating up other Titan’s ignoring the Colossal Titan behind it.

  
“It doesn’t know you’re here, Bertholdt you need to move away from here noq,” she said to the Titan.

 

* * *

 

 

Down on the ground Reiner and Mikasa stared at the now Colossal Titan standing where Bertholdt had been.

 

“Oh for fuck sake,” Reiner muttered to himself. “Mikasa you follow that Titan while I take care of this one,” he said and flew up the body of the Colossal Titan. He landed on the Colossal Titan’s shoulder and punched its jaw.

  
“For fuck sake Bertholdt are you trying to get yourself killed?” he shouted at him.

 

“Wait you knew about this?” Evelyn cried.

  
“Yes I knew, you should also know that I’m a Titan too, the one in full-plate armour that just broke the front gate to Trost,” Reiner said angrily.

  
“He’s a Titan, you’re a Titan, I don’t care, we need to get Bertholdt back to his normal size before the Garrison try and kill him,” Evelyn remarked.

 

“You’re right Evie, Bertholdt, get out of this form now before you get in trouble,” Reiner shouted to him.

 

“Pain…hurts,” the Titan said to him.

  
“So heal yourself and then revert!”

 

“I think he had internal injuries, that Rogue Titan hit him pretty hard,” Evelyn said to Reiner.

 

“He should have had enough time to heal then, how much gas do you have left?”

 

“None, I’m out.”

  
“Dammit, okay, Bertholdt revert now!” Reiner yelled as he grabbed Evelyn and leapt off the Titan. It let out a large vent of steam surrounding it and when the steam vanished, so had the Titan and Bertholdt was now standing on one of the roofs.

 

“Bertholdt!” Evelyn cried as Reiner set her down on, she flung her arms around Bertholdt not caring that his body was still hot from the steam. “I can’t believe you’re the Colossal Titan, so you never really left me!” While her brain was yelling at her to be angry at him for being the Colossal Titan, she couldn’t be after all those years of wanting to find the Colossal Titan when it had been right in front of her.

 

“Evie, I wanted to tell you, but we have a mission,” Bertholdt told her.

 

“I don’t care, you never left, it, that part of you, it never left me and…I get why I wanted to find you…I don’t belong behind these walls, I never have, Reiner,” she let go of Bertholdt and hugged Reiner, startling him a little. “You truly are my brother,” she said.

 

“Once we have finished our mission, we can go home, but first we need to find the Coordinate,” Reiner said. “Bertholdt, you took a big risk transforming and I’m pretty everybody saw your form, but we have a bigger problem.”

  
“What’s that?” Bertholdt asked.

 

“Mikasa saw you transform,” Reiner said.

 

“What, oh no she’ll kill me!” Bertholdt cried.

 

“Don’t worry Bertholdt, she doesn’t scare me, I’ll protect you if she tries anything, but I’m going to need something from the barracks first,” Evelyn said.

  
“Hop on my back and I’ll carry you,” Reiner offered. She laughed and did so.

  
“Alright brother,” she said. The three of them headed towards the barracks unaware that Mikasa had been watching them the whole time. She couldn’t follow them but she was going to make Bertholdt pay, now she knew what he really was.

 

* * *

 

 

The barracks were free from Titans, so they had to be quick. Evelyn led them to the dorm she had been assigned to and opened up her pack that was sitting on the bed.

 

“Hannes gave this to me after I got beat up by bullies when I was nine, I have kept it on me ever since but never used any of the ammo,” she said pulling out a flintlock pistol with the roses of the Garrison emblazoned in iron on the side and a box of ammo with the same roses.

 

“Why do you have a pistol?” Reiner asked her taken aback by the sight of the gun.

  
“Up until today I was an orphan raised by drunk Garrison soldiers, you shouldn’t be so shocked that Hannes gave a gun to me, the bullets are small and quick enough to blind a Titan as well, and guns may be an option at this point, now let’s try and get back to the Fortress.”

 

“I’m not sure our gas supply will last the journey, we used up quite a bit of it and I’m using extra carrying you,” Reiner said.

 

“Well we can’t stay here, so we’re going to need something fast,” she paused and looked at Reiner.

  
“No, no I can’t do that again,” he protested.

  
“Reiner, you smashed the front gate in, you’re the reason we’re in this predicament so get your ass in that Titan form and take us close enough to the Fortress that you won’t be caught and we can get back safely,” Evelyn shouted at him. Reiner blinked in surprise and then grinned.

 

“Alright baby sister, let’s go,” he said.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside, Reiner bit into his hand and transformed into the Armoured Titan as Bertholdt and Evelyn clung to his shoulder and he ran towards the fortress, bowling over the smaller Titans that got in his way. Evelyn seemed to be high on adrenaline as Reiner ran through the streets towards the fortress. This day had gone unexpectedly, first sex with Bertholdt, then Titans breaching the wall, finding out Reiner was her brother and now that Bertholdt and Reiner were the Colossal and Armoured Titans. She couldn’t understand why she was so happy to be finding out all this and not want to beat the crap out of them both for breaching Wall Maria in the first place. As they approached the fortress, Bertholdt and Evelyn leapt off onto the nearest roof as Reiner’s Titan formed vanished and he was back to himself.

 

“Alright, we should have enough gas to get us back to the fortress, wait what’s going on over there?” he asked. They looked to see the rest of their squad watching the Rogue Titan fighting with the other Titans, they ran over as Jean called out to them.

  
“Get over here now, this Titan got lured here, we have to get inside and clear out the Titans so we can resupply,” he said.

 

“How many are in there?” Evelyn asked.

 

“At least six made it inside where the gas supply is, we’re going to need to take them out whilst this one focuses on the ones outside,” Jean said.

  
“How are we going to take them out?” Sasha asked him. Evelyn smiled and pulled out her Garrison flintlock.

  
“We can use the Garrison artillery, there should be a whole supply of guns in there,” she said.

  
“Why do you have a gun?” Armin cried.

 

“I was raised by Hannes, Armin, he gave this to me when I was nine,” Evelyn said to him.

  
“Why did Hannes give a nine-year old a gun?” Armin cried again.

 

“It’s Hannes!”

 

“Guys, argue about the morals of giving kids guns later, how do we use the guns?” Jean asked.

 

“I have a plan on how to use them, but we need to get inside and quickly,” Armin said. Everyone made their way inside the headquarters, Evelyn knew Mikasa was probably waiting for the perfect moment to strike, but Eren was probably her primary focus still. Evelyn would have to be extra careful of Mikasa from this point on.

 

* * *

 

 

Inside, Armin relayed the plan to everyone, the top ranks would come in from the top and slay the Titans whilst everyone else would gather in the lift and use the firearms. It was as good as a plan as any, she, Mikasa, Bertholdt, Reiner, Connie and Sasha would be on the rafters and everyone else in the lift.

 

As the lift lowered down into the supply room, she stood on the rafters, Bertholdt on her left and Reiner on her right. The Titans began to close in as Marco counted down.

 

“On three, one…two…three!” he called out. Guns began to fire as they leapt down and began to kill the Titans, Evelyn cleared hers in one swoop as did everyone else except for Sasha. As she got backed into a wall, Evelyn leapt into the air spun, her blades taking out the Titan.

  
“Oh thank you, thank you!” Sasha cried as she clutched onto Evelyn for dear life.

 

“You’re lucky I was here, next time you have to be more precise,” she said patting Sasha’s head.

 

“Sasha!” Connie cried running over to her. “Oh thank the Walls you’re alive!” Evelyn passed a now crying Sasha over to Connie and she returned to Bertholdt and Reiner.

 

“Well, we make a good team, now let’s resupply and check on that Rogue Titan,” Evelyn said. Reiner laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

 

“My sister everyone!” he shouted. This caused Mikasa to glance at her after hearing that and she narrowed her eyes. “Once this is over, we’ll need to have a long talk about…everything,” he said letting her go.

 

“We really do,” Evelyn agreed.

 

“Evie, let’s go!” Ymir shouted from across the room.

 

Once everyone had resupplied left the headquarters, the Rogue Titan was still trying to fight the Titans but it was losing energy.

 

“Everyone, defend that Titan,” Evelyn shouted and leapt into the air and headed towards a Titan. She killed it in a clean swoop, spinning around and heading straight for the next one. Mikasa and Jean followed, killing the remaining Titans as the Rogue Titan roared and fell to the ground. When the Titans were wiped out, Evelyn landed next to the Rogue Titan and saw steam erupting from the neck, and out of the neck, came Eren.

 

“Eren!”


	10. I Gotta Do The Right Thing For My Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt's been exposed as the Colossal Titan, but Pixis has an idea on how to use his form to help Trost.

The next few hours went by in a strange way that no one knew how to deal with. First Eren was arrested by the Garrison and nearly killed by cannon fire, but then when Mikasa began to accuse Bertholdt of being the Colossal Titan saying she, Evelyn and Reiner all saw him transform, Woerman had even more reason to try and kill them. But that all changed when Commander Dot Pixis arrived and ordered for both the help of Bertholdt and Eren to help block the wall in Trost and take out the Titans, and then have them handed over to the Military Police after. But when Mikasa came for Bertholdt with the Garrison troops on the Wall of Trost, Evelyn didn’t hesitate to protect him from Mikasa.

 

“Come near him and I will put a bullet between your eyes Ackerman,” she said standing in front of Bertholdt, her gun aimed at Mikasa.

  
“Are you seriously defending that thing?” she said accusingly.

 

“That’s funny, aren’t you doing the same thing with Eren?” Evelyn asked.

 

“Carter put that damn thing away,” Shadis said to her trying to calm the situation.

 

“My name’s not Carter Instructor and you know it, it’s Braun and if you’re going to take Bertholdt, you’re taking me with him, I’ll gladly call myself his accomplice,” Evelyn said, better me than Reiner, she thought.

 

“Shadis, take Miss Ackerman and these goons away while I talk with the young lady here,” Pixis said stepping in. Mikasa glared at Evelyn as Shadis led her away back to Eren and Armin.

 

“Miss Braun was it…here I was told your name was Carter,” Pixis said.

  
“It’s Braun, Commander.”

 

“I see that now, now Mister Hoover was it, now obviously this Titan charge against you is very severe and of cause you are under arrest as are you Miss Braun but why don’t we use this as an opportunity, you help us, maybe we can help you,” Pixis offered.

 

“How so?” Bertholdt asked him.

 

“Well you can be honest with me boy, are you the aforementioned Colossal Titan that breached Wall Maria five years ago?” Pixis asked as he took out his hip flask.

 

“Uh…I don’t know if-,” Bertholdt began nervously.

  
“Don’t be nervous boy, just say yes or no, if you answer it will make things easier.”  


“Umm, yes?” Bertholdt asked.

 

“Are you asking or telling me, no matter, now that we got that out of the way, we can use you, obviously being incredibly tall in your Titan form will mean you’ll have the advantage of plugging the wall with the boulder in the square but we’re leaving that to Eren now the real question is how can we prevent more Titans getting in from the other side of the wall and isolating the ones inside already?” Pixis said.

  
“Commander, the gate was smashed in by the Armoured Titan, not the Colossal, if you need an outside defence, your best bet is getting the Scouts to keep the Titans at bay from the outside,” Evelyn said as they began to walk with Pixis.

 

“That we have set already Levi’s Squad are on their way, but if Eren is going to be plugging up the wall then we’ll need someone to be a lookout, someone like your boyfriend here,” Pixis said.

 

“What do you mean?” Evelyn said.

  
“How can I be a lookout?” Bertholdt asked. Pixis merely laughed and took another swig.

 

“It’s easy, you can look over the wall,” Pixis said.

  
“Yes, but I can’t see right over the wall, my height exceeds the wall by ten metres so my view will be limited at the base of the wall,” Bertholdt tried to explain, although it was clear Pixis wasn’t listening.

 

“So this is the plan, you will transform into the Colossal Titan and with Miss Braun’s help here you will guide the Scouting Regiment towards the bands of Titans nearing the wall, we’ll have you standing in front of the gate as well to give you a better view of the perimeter,” Pixis said.

  
“Commander, if we do this what will happen after the hole is plugged?” Evelyn asked.

 

“Do this and you won’t be executed,” Pixis told her. A grave situation and a lot of pressure on them both as well as Eren. “Now let’s relay the plan with Mister Yeager and we can begin preparing.”

 

* * *

 

 

Both Bertholdt and Eren could only stare at each other in silence as Pixis relayed the plan to them. The only person seeming neutral on the whole issue was Armin who said that if Bertholdt could help them with fixing the wall in Trost it might be a chance for him to be ‘humanity’s greatest threat turned ally’ as he had put it. Evelyn agreed with Armin, he understood it well and knew that Armin would also have a good plan to add onto the current plan.

 

“What do you think Armin, do you think there’s any way Bertholdt and I can assist the Scouts further than just lookout?” she asked him.

 

“What else can the Colossal Titan do besides break walls and let off steam?” Armin asked.

  
“There is one thing but it’s kind of a wild card because I don’t know how it fully works?”

 

“If it can help us, tell us what it is,” Pixis said.

  
“My form can also talk, no more than three words in a sentence, but I think I can command Titans to do things, so for example if I told them to stop, they would,” Bertholdt said.

  
“Do you think you could use that to lure Titans away from the wall for the Scouts then?” Armin said.

  
“It’s a possibility, but I will need Evie to help, I’ll need her to point the groups out so I can command them to move, if we can block the hole in the wall in time I could also command every Titan loose in Trost to stop moving as well,” Bertholdt added.

 

“I don’t like, I hate it, I’d rather they kill you than have you help us,” Eren began.

  
“Easy Yeager,” Evelyn said showing the flintlock on her hip.

 

“However…if you think you can help us, then we’ll use you, but this will not make up for what you did,” Eren added on.

 

“I know that,” Bertholdt said lowering his head a little.

 

“So it’s settled then, we’ll wait on confirmation from Squad Levi and then put this plan into action, now I need to have a word with the rest of the Garrison,” Pixis beckoned for Eren to follow him and he did, Mikasa following as well but Armin stayed behind.

 

“Armin, do you really think they’ll try and execute me and Eren?” Bertholdt asked him.

 

“If this plan works, they might not, but it’s still pretty serious, I don’t know why you’re under arrest too though Evie,” he replied.

  
“I called myself an accomplice in order to protect Reiner, he’s always with Bertholdt and me, I’d rather he not get caught up in this,” she said, and have them find out he’s a Titan too, she thought. Armin seemed to know what she was thinking and nodded at her.

 

“Well you can trust me, I’ll make sure Reiner’s protected too,” Armin said to her. She smiled and put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Thanks Armin, I always could rely on you, even when those assholes from Shiganshina would beat me up for being an orphan girl,” she said.

 

“Well they beat me and Eren up too, I’m going to go talk to him, hang in there you two,” Armin replied and walked away. Evelyn sighed and leaned into Bertholdt and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hugged her tight as they looked into Trost seeing the roaming Titans.

 

“I don’t blame you for Shiganshina, Bertholdt,” she said.

  
“You don’t?”

  
“No, if anything I’m grateful, in Shiganshina I was the orphan girl who got beat up, but here…here I have a twin brother, I have a guy who cares about me, and I have friends in Ymir and Krista, if I was offered the chance to return everything to the way it was, I would say no.”

 

“Then I guess I don’t have any regrets either, I can’t take back what I did, but at least I can atone for what I did,” Bertholdt said. The weight of all those he had killed in Shiganshina always weighed on his shoulders, but the first time he heard Evelyn talk about the Colossal Titan, he was happy that someone had seen him in that form and had seen an angel rather than a monster.

 

_“So now that Eren’s out of earshot, tell me what you really think about the Colossal Titan Evie?”_

_“Why do you care Ymir?”_

_“I happen to think that maybe you’re right, so I want to know all your thoughts about it.”_

_“Well, honestly I’m sort of happy the Colossal Titan broke the wall.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Yes, I hated my life in Shiganshina, my guardian was a drunk Garrison officer who didn’t give a shit about what I did, I was beat up by half the kids who lived there, and the one adult who actually gave a crap about me is dead.”_

_“And that’s why you’re so obsessed with the Titan.”_

_“I’m not obsessed, I just think that it’s still out there and I want to find it.”_

_“You’re never finding that Titan Evie.”_

 

Except she had and he was it.


	11. Strike Back A Little Harder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle to take back Trost begins and Eren, Bertholdt and Evelyn all face a trial.

Levi Squad had responded and were on their way to Trost. Eren was in the square near the boulder with Armin and Mikasa ready to transform begin the plan to block the hole in the Trost gate, and Bertholdt and Evelyn were on the wall above the gate ready.

“I’m scared Evie, what if my commands don’t work,” he said to her.

“Bertholdt, you can do this, you’re bigger than they are and should something happen on Eren’s end you can take over,” she replied. A green smoke flare went up into the sky from inside Trost and she looked out over the wall to see a group of riders heading through the canyon. “Alright are you ready?” she asked Bertholdt.

“Yes.” She gave him a kiss and then took out a small knife from her belt and cut into his palm.

“Good luck.” Bertholdt jumped backwards off the wall as a flash of lightning came from the sky and he transformed into the Colossal Titan. Evelyn looked down the wall and saw four Titans around the gate.

“We’ve got four by the gate, we need to keep them as far back as possible,” she called out.

“FALL BACK!” The Colossal Titan roared over the wall. Evelyn looked down as the Titans paused momentarily and then slowly backed away from the wall.

“It worked, they’re moving and now Squad Levi are advancing to the gate, now to see if the boulder is moving,” Evelyn said as leapt onto the Titan’s shoulder. She could see down into the square but something was wrong, Eren’s Titan form was just sitting in front of the boulder.

“It’s not moving, Bertholdt, I need to get down there.”

“Don’t leave!”

“Bertholdt, they need me down there, you can do this, just keep those Titans away from the wall and guide the Scouts, I’ll be back soon,” she said.

“Love…you.” Evelyn paused and looked at the Titan, she could see the eye straining to get a look at her, activated her gear and leapt onto the Titan’s nose to get a better look at him.

“I love you too Bertholdt.” She jumped off the Titan and flew down towards the square, Armin was on the neck of Eren’s Titan form trying to get him to start moving.

“Mikasa what’s going on?” she asked Mikasa who was standing in front of the Titan.

“He lost control and now he’s not moving.”

“Shit, what do we do, we need that boulder.”

“Eren, come on I know you can hear me,” Armin cried as he tried to talk to the Titan.

“We can’t do anything until he starts moving,” Mikasa said.

“Wrong, we can, you need to get to the front gate to stop the Titans getting in, you’re fast at killing them and you have more kills under your belt than me,” Evelyn said.

“Why should I do this for you?” Mikasa asked her with irritation in her voice.

“You’re not doing this for me, you’re doing it for Eren he can’t stop the Titans in that form, but you can, so go out there and fulfil that goddamn promise I had to hear about for five years because right now our lives are more important!” Evelyn shouted at her. Mikasa was silent at Evelyn’s tone, she had never spoken like that to her.

“Alright Evie, for Eren,” she said and flew off. Evelyn leapt onto Eren’s Titan form to see Armin jamming a blade down into the nape.

“What’s going on Armin?” she asked him.

“Complete shut down, I missed his arm to try and get him moving,” Armin replied as he pulled his blade out of the Titan flesh.

“Try the leg, or perhaps the torso,” Evelyn suggested.

“I keep missing, maybe Bertholdt can get the boulder to the wall,” Armin said.

“He’s busy with the outer wall Titans getting in, let me try,” Evelyn said. He moved out of the way for her as she brandished her blade. “Alright Eren, if you don’t get this Titan moving, I’ll execute you myself,” she shouted and stabbed the blade down. The Titan suddenly roared out and lifted its arm up.

“He’s moving, you did it,” Armin cried as he and Evelyn leapt off the Titan that was now slowly standing up.

“Now we have to get him to the gate, you keep an eye on his movements while I guide him, follow me Yeager!” Evelyn began to fly in front of Eren’s Titan form, always trying to keep an eye on the Colossal Titan which was shouting commands to the outer wall Titans. Eren’s Titan roared out with anger as it hoisted the large boulder above its head and began to walk in the direction of the wall.

“Perfect, keep him moving, time for the Colossal to fall back,” she said and began to make her way towards the Colossal Titan. She could see Mikasa defending the gate as well as several other cadets that were nearby and she flew up the wall.

“Bertholdt, you can revert, Eren’s on the way, best warn everyone down the wall,” she said as she landed on the wall. The Colossal Titan let out a burst of steam and vanished. Bertholdt landed on the wall, steam slightly emanating from him.

“Evie, is he on the way here?” Bertholdt asked her.

“Yes, what was the situation with the base of the wall?”

“I got most of them away and Squad Levi made it through just as you arrived, we just need the boulder to block the hole,” Bertholdt told her.

“Eren’s got this, I had to stab him to wake him up, although I’m not entirely sure where the blade went, but it worked, let’s go and defend the gate,” Evelyn said. Bertholdt nodded at her and they flew down the wall and cut down Titan’s clearing the path for Eren to make it to the hole and throw down the boulder. As Eren approached, a large abnormal began running towards Eren.

“Mikasa on your left!” Evelyn yelled as her blade flew out of her hand and jammed itself into the neck of the abnormal, it didn’t seem phased and kept running until it was cut down. Eren slammed the boulder into the ground and blocked the wall. Evelyn landed safely on the ground near the large abnormal and picked up her blade.

“You ought to be careful where you’re throwing that,” said a voice. She turned and looked down to see Levi staring up at her. “You could have taken its eye out.”

“Captain Levi, an honour to meet you, Evelyn Ca- Braun, at your command,” she said saluting him.

“Nice to meet you, now I have a question, why did I see the Colossal Titan inside of Wall Rose?” he asked her as Bertholdt ran over.

“Evie we did it, Eren blocked the wall now they’re pulling him out of his form,” he told her.

“There are two Titans?” Levi asked now even more interested.

“Yes, the Colossal Titan used its voice to command the Titans fall back whilst Eren’s Titan form picked up the boulder and blocked the hole to stop more getting through,” Evelyn explained.

“So is the Colossal Titan then?”

“That would be me Captain,” Bertholdt said nervously raising his hand. Levi looked up at Bertholdt and frowned.

“You don’t look like much, either way, you helped humanity, that should help your case…that is if the Military Police don’t try and get you first,” Levi said. Bertholdt and Evelyn glanced at each other and Hange Zoë landed on the ground.

“Captain, there’s still several Titans within Trost itself, is there a chance we could try and capture one for analysis?” she asked him.

“No!” Levi said and began to walk away.

“But Captain,” Hange whined as she followed after Levi. It was over for now.

 

* * *

 

 

Bertholdt, Eren and Evelyn were soon later arrested and taken inside Wall Sina to face a military tribunal. Eren and Bertholdt were charged with treason on the grounds of being Titans and Evelyn on grounds of aiding and abetting the Colossal Titan. She wondered if they were going to execute all three of them or if they’d be locked underground for the remained of their lives, or worse, banished outside of the walls to be killed by Titans.

In their cells, Evelyn sat on her bed, Bertholdt and Eren were in the cell next to hers they could still talk although the guards weren’t keen on it.

“Shut the hell up traitor,” one guard spat at her.

“Oh bite me,” she retorted spitting at him. “This whole trial is a farce, we saved Trost and you want us on pikes because you’re scared.”

“Evie don’t taunt them further,” Bertholdt warned her.

“And you shut up Colossal Bastard, you’re the reason we have so many goddamn refugees to deal with inside Rose,” the guard shouted at Bertholdt.

“You leave him alone,” Evelyn said standing up and going to the bars. “We’re innocent, Eren has no clue how he became a Titan and Bertholdt…probably the same,” she said. She wasn’t going to get that explanation from Reiner for a while.

“I said shut it,” the guard said hitting the bars of the cell with his gun to frighten her.

“Oh please, I grew up in the Garrison, you’d have to do a lot more than that,” she said unimpressed by the guard.

“Alright I’ll take it from here, leave them alone,” said Dhalis Zachary walking into the cells.

“Yes sir,” the guard said and promptly left to wait outside. Zachary eyed the three of them closely.

“Eren Yeager, Bertholdt Hoover and Evelyn…is it Carter or Braun, your record say Carter but Captain Levi said your name is Braun,” he asked her.

“It is Braun sir, Doctor Yeager changed my name to cover up the fact that my whole life has been a lie and that my parents weren’t really Scouts who were killed outside of the walls,” she said bitterly.

“Wait…dad gave you that name?” Eren asked her.

“Yes Eren, apparently your dad kept secrets from the both of us,” she replied.

“Well now, I am to inform you that I will be overseeing your trial, all three of you will come before the Military Police and the Scout Regiment in the morning and well…the facts of your case will decide your fate.”


	12. Convicted For My Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trial begins and Evelyn is forced to confess.

The next morning was the trial and Evelyn, Bertholdt and Eren were brought before the tribunal, they were each chained to an individual post in the center of the court room, to their left were their friends and the Scouting Regiment whilst to the right were the Military Police, guns in their hands. Evelyn looked towards Levi who gave her a single nod, she smiled slyly back and looked down at the floor. His plan better work, she thought to herself.

“This tribunal begins, the defendants are Eren Yeager and Evelyn Braun of Shiganshina District and Bertholdt Hoover of…Hometown, right, Evelyn Braun we shall begin with you, Miss Braun, do you admit to any involvement in the breach of Wall Rose?” Zachary announced to the court.

“I deny any involvement in the destruction of Wall Rose, I have an alibi in the form of my fellow defendant Bertholdt Hoover, as well as several witnesses who all saw me head in the direction of the Trost Barracks,” she said.

“Does this mean you Bertholdt Hoover also deny any involvement in the breach of Wall Rose?” Zachary asked him.

“Yes sir, I Bertholdt Hoover, deny any involvement in the destruction of Wall Rose,” Bertholdt declared.

“Might I ask then, where were you at the time of the breach Miss Braun?” Zachary inquired. Evelyn paused, she couldn’t admit that to the court, what happened between her and Bertholdt was private.

“I am afraid that such information is private and should stay between myself and Bertholdt sir,” she answered avoiding his look.

“Miss Braun, this alibi needs to be heard so that we may take your answer into consideration, so answer the question, where were you and Mister Hoover at the time of the breach?” Zachary asked her more sternly.

“Just tell him Evie, it’ll come out eventually,” Bertholdt told her.

“I can’t Bertholdt, what happened should remain between us.”

“Just answer the goddamn question Evie,” Eren snapped at her. Evie squeezed her eyes shut and then stared straight up at Zachary.

“Bertholdt Hoover and I were engaged in sexual intercourse in the Trost barracks at the time of the attack, Bertholdt had run off in anger and I followed him, one thing led to another and then…it was wonderful, for this brief moment, I had forgotten why I came to Trost in the first place,” she announced to the court. Everyone gasped and she glanced over at Reiner and Annie who were both staring in shock.

“Wait a minute, while the Armoured Titan was breaking down the wall, you were having sex!” Eren shouted at her.

“It just happened, how were we to know the Armoured Titan were was going to break through and cause chaos,” she shouted back at him.

“Miss Braun, Mister Yeager, calm down, Mister Hoover do you admit to what Miss Braun just revealed to the court?” Zachary asked Bertholdt. He looked down and nodded trying to avoid the hard stare from Reiner.

“It is true sir, Evie and I were having sex in the barracks, I had an argument with my friend Reiner and he called me weak and…I’m not weak, how can I be when I showed her my Titan form the night before, you didn’t see how happy she was when she finally saw the Colossal Titan again, she had spent five years hoping to find that Titan, when it had been with her for three of those years. Eren wants to kill me for what I did, but she was grateful for what I did, I destroyed Shiganshina, I killed innocent people and I cannot take that back but you cannot take away the fact that I looked into her eyes that night in Trost and saw love in her eyes for the monster that destroyed what she once called home!” Bertholdt shouted to the court.

“You admit to the destruction of Shiganshina?” Zachary asked her.

“Thousands of witnesses saw the Colossal Titan destroy the gate to Shiganshina, they saw the Armoured Titan break through the second gate and breach Wall Maria, I cannot deny that crime I mean…I was a child. Eren sees the monster who killed his mother, Evie sees the Titan who saved her from a life of living on the streets but when I see myself…I see a little boy…a little boy who didn’t realise what he had signed up for until he saw the bodies, that’s why I revealed myself to Evelyn, why I agreed to help defend Trost, because that little boy deserves better than what was promised!” Bertholdt began to weep, he just wanted to go home now, back home where everything had been fine.

“That is a…very interesting statement Mister Hoover, we shall take it into consideration,” Zachary said. Eren was silent, he looked at Bertholdt, seeing the tears, the remorse, the pain, he was a murderer, but…the agony of what he did seemed to weigh heavily on him and perhaps that remorse was what prompted him to reveal his Titan form.

“I have no idea how my form works, but Bertholdt knows how to control his and he probably knows more about where the Titans are coming from than we know, if he can turn into a Titan, he probably knows the truth about them, we are all innocent!” Eren shouted. A gun was then pointed at him.

“Eren, quiet!” Evelyn hissed.

“No, no they need to hear the truth, that unless we use these Titan forms against the Titans we will keep losing and we will die unless we find out a way to turn it to our favour, we just need to- AH!” Eren cried suddenly as Levi’s boot met with his face. Everyone could only watch as Levi ruthlessly attacked Eren who couldn’t retaliate.

“That’s enough Ackerman, stop this at once!” Zachary ordered, Levi took a step back and turned to Bertholdt, he then punched Bertholdt hard in the face.

“Pathetic,” Levi muttered before giving Evelyn a look and clicking his fingers.

“Miss Braun, do you have anything else to say in your defence?” Zachary asked her.

“Who are you to even think you can know the difference between good and evil?” Evelyn accused him as he looked at her. Zachary leaned forward curiously.

“What did you say?” he asked her.

“You heard me sir, who are you, who are any of you to even think you can know the difference between good and evil?” she asked.

“Well I uh-,” Zachary was speechless what sort of question was that? Evelyn then turned to the Military Police, some of them were eyeing her up like a lamb for the slaughter. She then started to laugh, it was low but sinister and slowly began to rise.

“Oh Lord forgive me, am I sinner or a saint for my non-existent crimes?” she asked herself in a low voice before she began to laugh rather manically which startled and frightened Zachary as her laughter rang out through the court.

“Oh God have mercy on me!” she yelled out. “Oh God have mercy on me, I’ve been laying with the Devil!”

“What is she doing Captain?” Zachary asked him, Levi shrugged at his question as Evelyn kept laughing.

“How can you know the difference between good and evil when I have looked into the face of the Devil itself and saw the grace of God? I have lain with the Devil, so burn me at the stake and hold me under holy water because nothing you say can prove that Bertholdt or Eren are evil!” she shouted at him with a vicious grin.

“What are you doing girl?” Zachary asked her. Still chained the post, she got to her feet shocking everyone as the Military Police turned their guns to her.

“Eren holds the blood of Titans in his veins, given to him by his father, whose filthy lies led me to believe I was the daughter of the brave Michael and Fiona Carter whose lives were lost during a Scouting mission, but I know where Grisha’s secrets are being held, in the basement in Shiganshina, I saw him hide them away, he holds secrets that reveal more than what we know about this world so if you want to get to that basement, you’re going to need me, you’re going to need all three of us, because the line between good and evil no longer exists,” she cried out. Suddenly, Levi broke into a smile.

“You could scare Titans with that intimidation you know,” he told her. “All three of you will be taken by the Scout Regiment, Eren and Bertholdt to find out more about the Titans and Evelyn here to learn more about what might be in the basement,” Levi declared again.

“Alright, we shall take a break while I reach a verdict, courts adjourned,” Zachary said standing up and leaving through a door on the edge of the court. As the Military Police filed away, Reiner leapt over the wooden rail and ran to his sister.

“What were you doing out there, I thought you’d been possessed?” he asked her.

“Relax Reiner, I got his attention is what I did, they can’t execute me without losing vital information about the Titans,” she told him.

“You weren’t bluffing?” Eren asked her.

“No, I’ve been in that basement, I never saw what Grisha hid from me, but I know there’s something in his desk, that key you have, that opens something in that basement, whatever it is, it’s important, otherwise he wouldn’t have tried to keep me away from that desk,” Evelyn explained. It had been several days before That Day when she saw the flash of something shiny get locked away in Grisha’s desk and he turned to tell her he’d be with her shortly to give her a check-up.

“Well, we have to go to Shiganshina now, we need to get the Scouts to mount an expedition,” Eren said.

“There’s a good chance they will after your testimonies,” Armin said to them.

“Good, now I need to sit down, these binds are hurting my wrists,” Evelyn said as she slowly sat down and stretched out her legs.

“Why are your feet not bound too?” Reiner asked her.

“I made an arrangement with Levi,” she told him.

When Zachary returned he read out the verdict, Evelyn, Bertholdt and Eren were to be handed over to the Scouts to learn more about the Titan forms and what might be inside of the basement, they were to receive extensive training and be inducted immediately with no option of joining the Military Police. Once the tribunal had ended they were taken back to their cells where they were to wait to be approved for transportation. While she had some ideas of what was in the basement, she had to wonder, why would Grisha lie about her birth, did he know she had been kidnapped? Questions she had been asking herself since she found out the truth from Reiner, but there were still more truth’s to find.


	13. Addicted To My Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evelyn, Eren and Bertholdt are sent to the old fortress.

Several days later Evelyn, Bertholdt and Eren had been transported to their new location, an old fortress that once belonged to the Scouts but had fallen into disrepair. When they reached the fortress with the rest of Levi’s squad, the first thing he had them do was clean the fortress.

  
“This feels all too familiar,” Evelyn said as she mopped the floor.

 

“How so?” Bertholdt asked her as he dusted the beams and tops of book cases.

 

“Oh, you know, being babysat by the military because no one else is going to,” she said. It was also reminding her of the time she had to clean the barracks by herself because half the Garrison were out getting drunk while the other half were on duty drinking.

 

“Well it’s better than the alternative,” Bertholdt said with slight optimism.

 

“He’s got a point Braun,” Levi said as he walked into the room, he smiled approvingly at Bertholdt’s handiwork of cleaning the tops of the book cases. “By the way Hange wants to study your Titan form, so whatever she asks of you just say yes.”

 

“Uh…okay,” Bertholdt replied slightly worried about what kind of research would be going on.

 

“Relax kid, she’s harmless, finish up here and then get down to the courtyard,” Levi told them and left the room. Evelyn and Bertholdt looked at each other in confusion and continued to clean.

 

* * *

 

 

They headed down to the courtyard when they were done, Hange was busy setting up some equipment when she spotted them.

 

“You’re here great, we have a lot of work to do, the Colossal Titan is a fascinating creation, so I want to gather all the information I can, so if you could transform we can begin, Evelyn you’ll have to be my assistant for this,” Hange said to them. Bertholdt was a little stunned by her enthusiasm but the reassuring smile from Evelyn seemed to relax him.

 

“Okay, I’ll need room though, at least twenty metres,” Bertholdt said.

 

“Right over there, we cleared some space, I have all your basic information, height and weight, we’ll be comparing it to the Titan,” Hange informed him. Bertholdt walked over to the large empty space in the courtyard and prepared himself. He bit down hard on his lip and a flash of lightning triggered as steam filled the air and the Colossal Titan was revealed. Hange jumped up and down with glee.

 

“Wonderful, Evie let’s gear up, we need to calculate height to see how heavy he might be,” she said to Evelyn who picked up her manoeuvre gear from the table. She looked up at the Titan in awe a little and walked over to one of the legs and proceeded to start climbing up with her gear. When she reached the top, she gave the Titan a smile and Hange flew up next to her.

 

“This is the most exciting moment of my life, sixty metres in height, judging by Bertholdt’s height six foot two, the form must calculate every foot for ten metres, the form must weigh at least over a ton then, now we need to get a look inside the Titan,” Hange said.

  
“What?” Evelyn asked.

  
“Inside, I can’t go inside obviously, we’ll tie some rope to you and you can give me a description of what the inside of the Titan looks like,” Hange told her.

 

“Are you okay with this Bertholdt?” Evelyn asked the Titan. The Titan replied by opening it’s jaw. “I take that as a yes, saddle me up then.” Hange tied a rope around Evelyn’s waist and with the Titan’s help made a pulley with its fingers so they could hoist her down slowly.

  
“This is so exciting,” Hange said as Evelyn stepped onto the tongue of the Titan.

  
“This is weird,” Evelyn remarked, she climbed further into the mouth and looked down the throat. She gripped the rope as she scaled down slightly and saw embedded in the nape of the neck Bertholdt stuck into the muscle as if it was devouring him slowly. His eyes were closed and he was calm, but ever slightly his left hand would twitch. She scaled down further into the belly of the Titan, the muscle was thick and the bones were clearly defined, but the most surprising thing was it was empty, other Titans had a pool of mucus that would envelop bodies so they would be thrown up or revealed after the body dissolved away, but the Colossal Titan was hollow.

 

“There’s nothing here,” she said to herself as she lowered herself more, she could see that there was a base of muscle at the bottom of the belly, but nothing else, until she saw something shiny embedded in the muscle. Her feet touched the base, it wasn’t hard like the outer shell but soft, as soon as she stood up, the body lurched.

  
“Sorry!” she called up as she tried to stay light on her feet and walked over to the shiny object. She leaned down and saw it was metal and stuck hard in the muscle, she grabbed and pulled it from the muscle which prompted another reaction from the Titan, she looked at the object it was a large metal cuff. She tugged on the rope as a signal to pull her up as she examined the cuff.

  
“That can’t be right,” she said to herself. The Titan would be created when he transformed, how could a metal object get created within the shell as well? As she climbed back onto the tongue of the Titan and walked out into the light, she held up the cuff.

 

“It’s completely hollow, the bottom of the torso has a ground made of muscle but there’s nothing there…except for this,” Evelyn said as she showed Hange the cuff.

 

“What is it?”

  
“I don’t know, it was stuck in the muscle at the bottom, it looks like something you wear on your arm,” Evelyn said as steam started to emanate from the Colossal Titan. “We better get to the ground.” She jumped down off the Titan using her gear for support and Hange followed her and they arrived on the ground as the Titan emitted more steam and vanished, leaving Bertholdt standing on the ground where he stood before.

 

“I feel weird,” he said putting a hand on his stomach as Evelyn approached him.

  
“How so?” she asked him.

  
“I don’t know, like I had something ripped from me,” he said. Evelyn looked at the cuff and showed it to him.

  
“Like this, how did it get inside the Titan form?” she said. Bertholdt looked at the cuff and instantly something came to his mind.

 

_“I like you kid, you’ve got potential to hold this power for good and maybe make it past twenty-five.”_

  
“That was from Ryder,” he said.

  
“Who?” Evelyn asked as Hange approached them.

  
“The man who held the Colossal Titan before me,” he said. “There’s a legend back home, that the kind of power Eren and I have come from a woman named Ymir Fritz, there are those who say she met with the Devil of the Earth but I always preferred the War Horn story.”

  
“What’s the War Horn story?”


	14. The Legend Of The Titan War Horn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt tells the story of Ymir Fritz's War Horn.

_Long ago in a time before the Titans, a Princess named Ymir Fritz was out in the Greenfields. As she played in the evening air, she saw the light of a faerie. Enchanted she started following it into the forest down through the darkened trail that led to an old temple. Inside the temple was a War Horn, as Ymir got closer to the horn she could see it radiating with power as the faerie guided her towards it. She picked up the War Horn and was enveloped in its power as a voice whispered to her: ‘a warrior you shall become.’ The faerie then guided her out of the temple and encouraged her to use the power of the War Horn. As she blew the signalling sound, she was suddenly transformed into a giant of radiant beauty. The War Horn still in her hand, she blew it again and from it made nine warriors to follow her command._

_People found her newfound power enchanting, she had become a War Goddess, but her people had no need for war as there was no threat, they worshipped her. But finding the War Horn came with a curse, after thirteen years her Ymir’s soul would be ripped into nine parts and split between the nine bodies she created, they in turn would only live for thirteen years passing their power down to another body that would transform into a Titan. There are legends that say the curse is unbreakable and that those with the Titans powers were doomed to passing down a legacy of limited life, but there is a possibility that the curse can be broken. Legends say that if the souls are united and the War Horn is found and blown one last time, the curse will be broken and those who hold the form of Titans will be free, but there is also a price for breaking the curse. The power will be lost and the bodies holding Ymir’s soul will die…all except for the one who blows the War Horn, who will hold the soul once again whole._

 

* * *

 

 

Hange and Evelyn sat there entranced by the story, they had never heard of such a story, that the Titans could all be traced back to a single War Horn that had been found by a Princess.

 

“Where is the War Horn now?” Evelyn asked.

 

“I don’t know, we were sent here to find the Coordinate, a special kind of power that the Fritz Royal family held and came here with, perhaps maybe the family had the War Horn as well,” Bertholdt told them.

  
“The Royal family’s last name is Reiss, do you think they have the War Horn?” Evelyn asked.

  
“I would have to go to the palace to be sure, I believe it’s real and that blowing the horn will break this Titan hell,” he replied.

 

“It’s an interesting story, so far we have Eren’s power and your power, there are seven Titans left to find,” Hange said.

  
“Who are the other Titans that make up the nine souls?” Evelyn asked.

 

“So far there’s the Colossal Titan, the Armoured Titan, Eren’s Titan who seems to primarily be attack, the Female Titan, the Beast Titan, the Jaw Titan and the Cart Titan, I don’t know who the other two are,” Bertholdt told them.

  
“The Armoured Titan can’t be too far then if he broke the Trost Gate, we could mount an expedition to find him,” Hange said. Evelyn shook her head.

 

“That would be a bad idea, the person who holds that power might have vanished already,” she said. Hange gave her a scrutinising look.

 

“If you say so Evelyn, I will take this data and get to work, you two are free to have some downtime,” Hange said, they saluted her and she left to start her research, leaving Bertholdt and Evelyn alone. She was quick to wrap her arms around him and kiss him passionately.

 

“Why don’t we find somewhere private,” she suggested.

 

“I like the sound of that,” Bertholdt agreed. She grabbed his hand and they walked into the old fortress to find a secluded bedroom in a corner on the fortress. They lay under the bed covers, their uniforms scattered on the floor as Evelyn rested against Bertholdt’s chest hearing his heart beat.

 

“Can I ask you a question?” Evelyn asked him as she circled the faded red spot on his chest with her finger.

  
“Yeah.”

  
“What’s your home like?”

 

“It’s…hard to explain, I’m from the Interment Zone in Liberio back in Marley, I had to wear this band on my arm so people knew I was an Eldian, it was…we’re not respected,” Bertholdt explained.

  
“Why not?”

 

“Because Eldian’s are the reasons Titans exist, there was this war and the Marleyan people won, Paradis was made out of the Eldian’s who left Marley but those who stayed…I miss home but I don’t miss the scrutiny, I’m free here no one forces me to wear a red band or looks down on me for my blood. I joined the Warriors in the hopes that I’d be able to escape that prejudice.”

 

“I know the feeling of being looked down on, people looking at you like you’re scum, beating you up for who you are,” Evelyn said as she looked at the scar on her wrist. The bullies in Shiganshina had pinned her down and decided they were going to ‘clean up’ by getting rid of her, they only got one wrist open before Armin interfered and got Hannes involved. She was grateful and told Armin she owed him one for saving her, Grisha was kind as well, telling her that she was strong and she could stand up for herself if she saw herself as a ‘warrior’. It was an interesting turn of phrase and she internalised it a little to keep the bullies off her. Then That Day happened and she looked up to see the Colossal Titan looking over the wall. “Did you see me in the crowd when you kicked in Shiganshina?” Bertholdt thought back to Shiganshina, there were a lot of people staring up at him as he kicked in the wall.

 

“Where were you standing?” he asked her.

  
“In the market, I got a good view of you, as soon as I got pushed back by the sheer force of the wall getting broken I started running,” she said.

  
“You weren’t scared at all, not of me, of the Titans that had entered the city?”

 

“Of the Titans yes, but not of you, you remember the fight with Eren.”

 

“Which one, the one where you didn’t speak after or the one where you two started to punch each other?” Bertholdt asked. Evelyn and Eren locked horns on the Colossal Titan not long after their first fight, during combat training, she had told Ymir how if the Colossal Titan came back she was going to go after it to get answers instead of fighting it. Eren had overheard and called her a crazy Titan-loving bitch which prompted her to punch Eren hard in the face and a physical altercation to start. She dislocated his jaw and he sprained her wrist and both were written up.

 

“Both, he didn’t get it at all, no matter how hard he tried to push the point,” she replied.

  
“Well…he did see his mother get eaten by a Titan that would screw anyone up,” Bertholdt pointed out.

 

“True, I’ve seen some of our comrades’ fall, I just wish Eren could see it from my point of view, maybe when a Titan saves his life, he’ll get it,” Evelyn said.

  
“That’ll be the day,” Bertholdt said. There was a knock on the door and Evelyn pulled the bed covers up.

 

“It’s Levi,” Levi said from behind the door. Evelyn looked at Bertholdt who shrugged.

  
“Uh…hang on,” Evelyn said climbing out of the bed and grabbing her shirt and trousers, she quickly changed into them and opened the door as Bertholdt just put his shirt on. “Hi Captain, we were just talking about you.” Levi smirked.

 

“Your shirt is on backwards, I came to let you two know it’s time for dinner, and the new squad is arriving  in a couple hours so you better look sharp, we need to discuss a small thing we need to do,” Levi said. Evelyn sighed, her cheeks pink.

 

“Sure thing Captain,” she agreed.

  
“Call me Levi kid, Captain makes me feel old,” Levi told her and walked away. She closed the door and turned her shirt the right way around.

  
“Well you heard the Captain, we better get ready for dinner,” she said.


	15. The New Levi Squad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The New Levi Squad arrive and Hange hatches a plan to collect some Titans.

Bertholdt and Evelyn went downstairs for dinner where Eren was sitting, he gave them a nod and went to eating. They sat down and Hange appeared sitting beside Evelyn.

                           
“I just made a discovery, that metal cuff you found in the Titan is an arm cuff, it’s not made of any metal I can recognise, which means it’s definitely not from this region, what’s interesting is how it manifested in the Titan shell, meaning it was a part of the Titan until you pulled it out,” she said.

  
“Well…that would make sense, considering how I got the power,” Bertholdt said.

  
“How?” Hange said. Bertholdt wondered how he could explain it.

  
“So in order to receive the Titan power, you have to be turned into a Titan first, they injected me with some kind of weird fluid, then when you’re a Titan you…eat the person with the power and they kind of get absorbed into you, if that makes sense,” he explained.

 

“Interesting, then…who did Eren eat?” Hange asked as she looked at Eren as he ate his dinner.

 

“Whoever it was, they had a reason to give him the power,” Evelyn said.

  
“Well that aside, we do need your help, we need to capture some Titans for research but the equipment we used to capture the last two got destroyed,” Hange said to them.

  
“Shouldn’t be too hard to get some, we’ll need a…like a really big basket I can carry them in,” Bertholdt said.

  
“We’ve got our team working on a large cage, taking in your Titan height and weight you should be able to carry up to twenty Titans on your back and we’ll be needing about twenty,” Hange informed him. “Ideally we’ll want to set out tomorrow to pick up these Titans.”

 

“Can I help?” Evelyn asked.

  
“You could be our eye in the sky, would help,” Hange replied. “I need to arrange things with Levi and Erwin.” She left the table and Eren sidled over with his plate.

  
“What were you talking about?” he asked.

  
“Titan talk,” Evelyn said. “The new squad should be here soon, who do you think it’ll be?”

 

“Armin and Mikasa definitely, Reiner probably if you two are here, Annie I’m not sure of,” Eren replied. “I just hope we get to go Titan killing soon.”

 

“There’s plenty of Titans out in the valleys now, I’m sure you’ll get your kill count up, technically, you’ve already killed some in your form,” Evelyn pointed out.

  
“So everyone tells me,” Eren said. They ate in silence for a while and when finished Eren decided to start a conversation. “So Bertholdt, how is it that you can get into your form at will?”

 

“You just kind of…do it,” he answered.

  
“Is that it?”

  
“Pretty much, self-harm is the only way to activate it, something to do with unleashing the energy it requires,” Bertholdt explained.

  
“I saw you in the form earlier today what was that for?”

 

“Hange is obsessed, she got the information she wants though, were the Colossal Titan in a much shorter person it wouldn’t be sixty metres high like it is with me,” he said to Eren.

  
“She is a little weird,” Eren admitted.

  
“I like her, she’s like a really quirky Aunt,” Evelyn said. “I would rather her be my guardian that the entirety of the Shiganshina garrison, they once made me sleep on a bench.”

 

“They did not,” Eren said.

  
“They did, it was the summer you and your dad went to Mikasa’s cabin, a whole bunch of recruits were added to the garrison and I had to sleep outside on a bench because my bed was taken,” Evelyn said.

  
“Your childhood sounds awful,” Bertholdt commented.

  
“There are worse stories, if you hadn’t kicked in the wall, there’s a chance I would have been kicked off it, those bullies would have made sure,” Evelyn said.

  
“I hated those guys, no idea what happened to them,” Eren said. He never saw them on the boat or at the refugee shelter they stayed in for two years. They heard noise outside and the neighing of horses.

 

“The squad must be here,” Evelyn said.

  
“Let’s go then,” Eren said. They all stood up and went out of the mess hall.

 

* * *

 

 

Outside were several carts as Eren, Bertholdt and Evelyn saw Mikasa, Armin, Annie, and Reiner getting off one of the carts.

  
“Armin, Mikasa,” Eren cried running over to hug his friends.

  
“Reiner,” Evelyn called as she ran over. Reiner held out his arms and grasped her in a hug lifting her up a little.

  
“We’re officially Scouts now,” he said letting her go.

  
“It was a hell of a speech Erwin made, but I’m not here for long, I told Erwin I’d give the Scouts a couple months before I joined the Military Police,” Annie said.

  
“Well it’s good you’re both here,” Bertholdt said. Reiner gave him a smile and went and hugged Bertholdt.

 

“Hey Bertholdt, bring it in,” Ymir called. Bertholdt let go of Reiner as Ymir came and gave him a high five.

  
“I gotta say when Reiner told us what happened in the Trost barracks, I had to give you props, no offense Evie,” Ymir said.

  
“None taken, I gave Krista my high five weeks ago,” Evelyn replied. Ymir chuckled and wrapped an arm around Evelyn.

  
“Well don’t go making an honest man out of him yet, we’re gonna need some of that spark to take back Wall Maria,” she said. “Speaking of which, I’m going to need details later, all the girls will, we have some questions for you.”

 

“Where is Marco, I saw Krista, Connie and Sasha just now where is he?” Bertholdt asked.

  
“Marco joined the Military Police as did Jean,” Armin said. “It’s a shame too, Jean had potential.”  


“He’s a prick,” Eren commented.

  
“Well now that you’ve all had a chance to catch up, you can all head to your assigned rooms, sorry lovebirds,” Levi said with a look towards Bertholdt and Evelyn. Evelyn laughed a little, trying to hide her blushing cheeks as everyone went inside to their assigned rooms. Evelyn, Annie, Krista and Ymir were all in a room together, as were Armin, Eren, Reiner and Bertholdt.

 

* * *

 

 

In their room Evelyn, Krista, Ymir and Annie all sat on their beds in their pyjamas talking, the sconces were still warmly lit and fading and Erwin’s footsteps had passed their door. As Evelyn scratched her collarbone, she winced a little as her arm grazed her chest.

  
“Are you okay?” Krista asked her.

  
“I’m uh…this is going to sound weird but my breasts are little sore, have been for a couple days now,” Evelyn admitted to them.

  
“You probably had your harness fastened too tight,” Annie suggested.

 

“Probably,” Evelyn said as she looked down.

  
“Maybe Bertholdt sucked on them too hard,” Ymir said before laughing. Evelyn blushed, she wasn’t going to mention their afternoon together when Levi caught them, but she knew they’d want some details.

 

“I’d rather not talk about it more, you know we’ve been cleaning the fortress for the past few days since we got here, Levi is super weird about cleanliness,” she told them.

 

“I want to know more though,” Ymir said.

  
“You don’t even like boys,” Evelyn said.

  
“And?” she asked. “I can’t be interested in the love lives of my friends, I mean I’m still waiting for the day Annie corners Armin so I can question her.” Annie rolled her eyes as she sat on the covers of her bed.

  
“Let’s not discuss Armin,” she said, she had her own plan for that. “I can still picture the look on everyone’s faces when Reiner told us all that you and Bert had been shagging in the barracks.”

 

“What was the look?” Evelyn asked.

 

“Jean seemed offended that Bertholdt got some action before him and he dubbed you ‘Titan Shagger’,” Annie replied.

  
“Figures, what about Sasha and Connie and the others?” Evelyn asked.

  
“Sasha thought it was romantic, Connie started laughing and Marco said that we should respect your privacy,” Krista told her.

  
“How is Marco?” Evelyn asked.

  
“He’s happy to be in the Military Police, I told him I’d join him in a few months, like I said I want some Titan kills under my belt,” Annie said.

  
“Smart, I think we should get some sleep, tomorrow I’m up early with Bertholdt to go collect some Titans with Hange,” Evelyn said as she got under the covers.

  
“Good night girls,” Ymir said as she went and blew the sconce near her out. They all settled down for the night, except for Annie.


	16. Female Titan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin and Annie meet up in the dark.

As soon as everyone was asleep, Annie crept out of bed and quietly made her way out of the room and out into the courtyard. She looked around, no one was out, and waited by the stable. A few minutes went by before she spotted Armin heading over to her.

 

“I’m here Annie, why did you want to meet up?” he asked her. She placed a finger to his lips and leaned in close.

  
“You are about to experience something shocking, so we can’t do it here, let’s take the horse and go a little further out from the fortress, can’t risk Erwin or Levi seeing this,” she told him. Armin was silent and nodded, together they saddled up a horse and made sure to trot out quietly before taking off at a gallop towards a forest a little ways outside of the fortress. The night was clear, which was a problem as Annie tried to find a location that would be big enough for her. Finally they came to the edge of the forest that hid the locations of the fortress. She stopped the horse and climbed off.

  
“This will work, far enough from the fortress and any nearby villages,” she said.

  
“For what Annie?” Armin asked he climbed down. Annie breathed out slowly and turned to Armin.

  
“Armin, you know that Bertholdt, Reiner and I were a tight knit group, even with Evelyn around,” she said.

  
“Yeah,” he agreed.

  
“So don’t you find it odd that out of the three of us Bertholdt is a Titan?” she asked him.

  
“It is suspicious, either you would have known or he had kept it a secret from you,” he replied. Annie nodded and walked a little ways from him.

  
“Then what I am about to do should confirm your suspicions,” she said as she flicked the spiked ring on her finger and a flash of lightning appeared from the sky as Armin watched Annie transform into a Female Titan. He stared up in shock, and slight admiration at her honesty, as the Female Titan leaned down towards him and tilted his chin up with her index finger. She looked down at him and then held out her hand, cautiously he stepped onto her hand and she stood up bringing him up so he could get a look at her face. The blonde hair fell over her eyes and Armin hated the thought that had immediately ran through his head.

 

“You’re a Titan too, then logic would dictate that Reiner is a Titan as well, mostly likely the Armoured Titan as he was with the Colossal Titan when Shiganshina fell, but why tell me?” he said to her. The Female Titan lowered him to the ground and in a strange flash the Female Titan was gone and Annie was back.

  
“Bertholdt has been exposed, the plan has already failed…and Evie is in love with him, to destroy that would be incredibly selfish, Reiner might have the strength and will to keep his true identity a secret but…I can’t believe what I’m about to do next,” she said.

 

“What?” Armin asked before Annie lunged at him and kissed him forcefully, knocking him to the ground as Annie fell on top of him. Armin was eager to reciprocate but the revelation of her being a Titan was still shocking to him.

 

“Evelyn didn’t care that Bertholdt was a Titan, I hoped for just a second you wouldn’t care that I was one either,” Annie said to him as she got off him and sat on the ground.

  
“She’d hate me for saying this but…I believe Evie was always in love with the Colossal Titan, that’s why I think she was drawn to Bertholdt, somehow her heart figured it out for her, you heard the way she talked about that Titan, it ruined mine, Mikasa and Eren’s lives but it didn’t for her, I think I understand it,” Armin said.

 

“But you don’t like me in the same way,” Annie said looking away from him.

  
“No, I do I just…the Titan doesn’t change anything for me,” Armin said.

  
“What does that mean?” Annie asked.

  
“It means, even if you weren’t a Titan as well, I’d still be too shy to ask you out, you just managed to make the move before I did,” he told her. That made her feel a little better.

  
“But now that I’ve revealed myself what are you going to do, I kind of have a job to do with this Titan and we can’t screw it up,” she said standing up.

  
“Well…what is the job?” Armin asked.

  
“I’m pretty sure Eren is the Coordinate that we’re supposed to retrieve, which means we have to capture Eren and take him back,” she told him. This was a problem, but what could he do?

 

“Eren’s powers are pretty unknown for now, what makes you certain he’s this Coordinate?” Armin asked as Annie climbed onto the horse.

 

“We were told that the Coordinate was a Titan power, we had to retrieve the person holding it, knowing that Eren is a Titan they’ll want his power too and something about his Titan form seems to let on to more than it can show, Bertholdt’s convinced his War Horn story is real and wants to search the palace for that,” she told him.

  
“War Horn?” Armin asked.

  
“He’s convinced that the Titan powers can be traced back to an old War Horn that had a curse attached to it,” she explained.

  
“An interesting theory,” Armin said as he climbed onto the horse and they rode back to the fortress.

  
“Only you know I’m a Titan, I’m going to tell Evie in confidence with Reiner and Bertholdt, she must know about Reiner by now he is her brother after all,” Annie said.

  
“Have you thought about maybe telling Erwin or Levi, they could give you immunity?” Armin suggested.

  
“No, they’ll try and experiment on me and try to learn about my form, I can’t allow that, I can trust you Armin, but I also can’t stay in the Scouts for long, when this expedition is over, I’m joining the Military Police and searching for that Coordinate if it exists, I don’t trust those Unicorn wearing tools anyway,” Annie said.

  
“Why not?”

 

“They stink of corruption, I told Marco and Jean to give me details when I join them,” Annie replied.

  
“It seems there’s a lot we don’t know then,” Armin said.

  
“Indeed Armin, there’s a lot you don’t know, about the Titans, the nine powers, heck I don’t think Eren even knows what kind of Titan he is,” Annie said.

  
“Bertholdt said his is focused for attack, the Colossal is mostly defence, what is yours then?” Armin asked.

  
“Melee, I mastered combat training for a reason, I’ve also got crystal defences,” she told him.

  
“Interesting, we should be able to sneak in without anyone noticing, but whatever your plan is, I recommend you don’t reveal you’re the Female Titan until absolutely necessary, if you’re in danger or something,” Armin advised her. Annie smiled, he was tactical.

  
“Zeke would love you, you could have been our squad tactician,” she said. That was a strange compliment to receive, but he accepted it nonetheless.

 

* * *

 

 

They made it back to the fortress and put the horse back in the stable.

  
“How will I know you won’t betray me?” Annie asked him. Armin thought for a moment and then kissed her longingly.

  
“That’s why,” he told her. Sealed with a kiss, her secret was safe. She crept back to her room, Evelyn, Ymir and Krista were still sound asleep. As she climbed into bed and settled down, she heard Evelyn stir quietly and mutter:

 

“Don’t touch him.” Annie turned over, Evelyn must be dreaming about Bertholdt. She wondered if Armin would dream about her Titan form, he seemed enthralled by it a little.


	17. The Smiling Titan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt and Evelyn go with Erwin, Levi and Hange to collect Titans for their research.

When dawn broke, Evelyn and Bertholdt were all set with Hange and Levi to go out and collect some Titans. As they saddled up the horses to ride to Trost, Evelyn looked at Bertholdt and gave him a supportive nod.

  
“We’ve got this,” she said. The large Titan cage was all set on a cart ready to depart for Trost.

 

“Alright people we don’t have much time, let’s get those Titans and get back before sunset, I’d hate to have ride back in the dark,” Levi said.

  
“I think that’s the least of your concern Captain,” Erwin said to him. Evelyn giggled a little and adjusted her harness, it was starting to get uncomfortable to wear. The ride to Trost was several hours with the sun being fairly high in the sky when they reached Trost and headed to the gate.

 

“Alright, looks like the lifts were successfully installed, we better get moving we need to get these Titans back to the fortress by nightfall,” Erwin said.

 

“We’re going to need at least four fifteen metre Titans,” Hange said. They got onto the lifts to get to the top of the wall and Evelyn could start feeling nausea as she got further from the ground. As they reached the top of the wall, she could feel the overwhelming urge to throw up, she had never felt this before when looking down from the wall, but this was new.

 

“Carter, you alright?” Commander Erwin asked her. She didn’t have a chance to respond before she dropped to her knees and started throwing up over the edge of the wall. Bertholdt knelt down beside her holding her hair back.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked her.

  
“I’m fine…breakfast didn’t agree with me it seems,” Evelyn said to him.

 

“Are you fit to help carry out this mission Carter, we can’t afford to have you slowing us down?” Erwin said to her.

  
“I’ll be fine Commander, my stomach seems to have settled itself,” she replied standing up.

 

“Alright then, Hoover, get down there and start picking out Titans, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to the fortress,” he said. Bertholdt gave Evelyn a worried look and pushed her hair back from her face.

  
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her.

 

“I’m sure Bertholdt, now get down there and I’ll follow you when you’re in form,” she said to him. He smiled and kissed her forehead. He wondered which way to transform and decided the running jump. He walked to the edge of the wall looking on Trost and ran and jumped off the wall into the outer valley. A flash of lightning lit up the sky as the Colossal Titan appeared before them all.

 

“Alright Carter get out there and help Hoover out, I’m going help set up the cage with Levi,” Erwin said as he stepped onto the lift to go down. Evelyn leapt and landed onto the Titans shoulder.

 

“Alright Bertholdt, let’s go Titan hunting,” she said.

  
“Wait for me!” she heard Hange shout as she flew over the wall and down onto the Titan’s other shoulder.

 

* * *

 

 

It was an hour of picking out Titans, for every Titan Bertholdt would find, Hange would find some problem with it. Evelyn could see it was starting to get irritating for him, he was never the Colossal Titan for a long amount of time and an hour was going to start causing problems.

  
“Hange, just find four goddamn Titans!” Evelyn said as Bertholdt slammed yet another Titan into the ground.

  
“We have to be precise Evie, any kind of abnormality could jeopardise our findings,” Hange explained to her as Bertholdt grabbed another Titan.

  
“What about that one then, it looks fairly normal,” Evie said. Hange looked at the Titan and then nodded.

  
“Yes, that one will do, right bring it back to the wall, Levi and Erwin should have the cage set up.” The cage was essentially a twenty metre tall metal box that Bertholdt was going to have to carry back in Titan form.

  
“How are you holding darling?” Evelyn asked Bertholdt as she got a look at his face.

  
“Tired!” the Titan replied.

  
“I know, but hold it together, we just need three more Titans and we can go back, I can’t imagine how stressful this is for you,” she said. On occasion steam would be released from the Titan as they searched. After half an hour two more Titans had been selected and they just needed one more.

  
“One more, and it needs to be perfect,” Hange said. Evelyn scoured and wondered how she could get a better view of the Titans.

  
“Alright, I’m heading down to the legs, don’t move,” Evelyn said as she activated her gear and scaled down the Titan, embedding the spikes into the leg and looking around. Then she saw it. About five feet from her, face to face, a Titan, feminine with a large ear to ear grin and black hair. She whistled and pointed to the Titan as it slowly walked towards her reaching out. The large hand of the Colossal Titan reached down and clasped the Titan and lifted it from the ground, Evelyn scaled up the Titan and nodded to Hange.

  
“We’re taking this one,” she said.

  
“This one?” Hange asked her.

  
“Yes, this one came from Shiganshina, I recognise it from Eren’s description,” Evelyn said.

  
“Eren?”

  
“Yes, this is the Titan that ate his mother, perhaps we bring him this Titan so he can kill it,” she said to Hange.

  
“But my research, this could be a vital specimen,” Hange said.

  
“Alright, you can research it, but when you are done, it dies by Eren’s hand, it just might bridge our frail friendship,” Evelyn said. Shiganshinas fall had partly fractured her and Eren’s friendship due to their conflicting views on the Colossal Titan, which was a shame as he had once been a good friend to her in the past when she had very few.

 

* * *

 

 

When the Titans had been put in the cage, the next step was get Bertholdt inside Wall Rose, he was successfully able to pull himself over the wall even though it was a slow process so it didn't break and at that point more steam was releasing from the Titan. He picked up the metal cage with the Titans in and they started the long journey back to the fortress. It startled several bystanders and merchants as they rode through neighbouring villages to the see the dreaded Colossal Titan walking through with an armed escort, but as Evelyn explained to them, the Colossal Titan was now their ally in the bid to stop the Titans and expand back to Wall Maria.

 

* * *

 

 

When they returned to the fortress, Evelyn was greeted by Ymir, Krista, Annie and Armin.

 

“Hey, you’re back, where’s Bertholdt?” Annie asked before the ground suddenly shook and a thunderous crashing sound was heard.

 

“What was that?” Ymir asked her as she steadied herself.

  
“That would be the sound of the Colossal Titan passing out after six full hours of Titan form and carrying a heavy metal box with four Titans in,” Evelyn said. “The day didn't also start well, I uh…I might have also thrown up earlier right off the wall as well.”

 

“Oh dear, are you okay?” Krista asked her.

  
“Sure, I’m fine now, have been for hours, it was just really odd, Armin when we’ve got the Titans sorted could you find Eren, I have something to show him,” Evelyn said.

  
“Sure thing,” Armin agreed. Evelyn left them to help Hange set up the Titans as Levi and Erwin cut Bertholdt out of the disintegrating Titan shell.

  
“Hoover are you okay?” Erwin asked Bertholdt as he sat him up. His hair was soaked with sweat, his clothes, damp too and his skin burning.

  
“So that’s what a Volcano feels like,” Bertholdt said as he slowly got to his feet and wobbled into Levi.

  
“Careful kid, let’s get you inside where you can hydrate yourself, six hours is a long time to be a Titan,” Levi said as he helped Bertholdt walk.

  
“I hate that form, there’s a reason my only role was to kick the wall in,” he said.


	18. The Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren meets the Titan from That Day.

Evelyn stared up at the Smiling Titan as it sat there, its hands and legs nailed to the ground, trapped by the binds that tightly wound it. She wondered if it had thoughts, memories, did it remember going up to Eren’s house, picking up his mother and biting into her. Evelyn remembered it well, when she was on the boat and she saw Eren walk onto the boat, eyes wide and glassy, silent, Mikasa beside him quiet and mournful, Armin, clutching onto his grandfather’s hand for fear he would be alone too and no sight of Carla. She saw in their faces desperation, loss, anger, grief, but she could only smile at the Colossal Titan that had destroyed her prison. So as she stared up at the Smiling Titan, she knew this one had to die.

 

“You found it then,” she heard Mikasa say.

 

“It’s you…yeah, we found it,” she replied.

  
“Why didn’t you kill it?”

 

“Eren should kill it, once Hange has learned everything about it, it dies,” Evelyn said.

  
“But Bertholdt shouldn’t die as well, he caused this thing to kill Carla,” Mikasa said.

  
“He didn’t know, how could he? He was just a child,” she explained.

  
“That still doesn’t make it right,” Mikasa told her. Evelyn knew that, she understood it, a soldiers orders, she remembered one night after a nightmare she took a midnight walk to see Bertholdt awake as well.

 

“The first year after we enlisted in the military, I awoke from a nightmare, I decided to take a walk to clear my head and I found Bertholdt, he was in the training yard alone, I asked if he was okay and he said to me ‘what kept you alive?’” she said to Mikasa.

  
“Alive?” Mikasa asked.

  
“Yes, he knew about my terrible life in the Garrison, being beaten up by bullies, mocked for being an orphan, he wondered what kept me going, had I known it was asked out the guilt of what happened, I would have been honest with him,” Evelyn replied.

 

“What did you tell him?”

 

“I told him it was freedom, I told him my freedom kept me alive in Shiganshina, I might have been alone but the Garrison didn’t restrict my limits, they gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted, but what actually kept me going was the realisation that one day I could escape, that this wasn’t forever and that one day the gates of Shiganshina would open just for me…I guess they did in a strange way,” Evelyn said.

  
“Do you love him?” Mikasa asked.

  
“Who?”

 

“Bertholdt, do you love him?” she asked Evelyn again. Evelyn chuckled and turned to face Mikasa.

  
“More than you know Mikasa, if anyone hurts him, they will feel my fury,” she told Mikasa with a straight face.

 

“Does the same go for Reiner?” she asked.

 

“Reiner can look after himself, he’s proven that many times,” Evelyn replied.

  
“A brother you never knew existed, I wish I could be as lucky as you.”

 

“You had a family Mikasa, even when you lost them you found another in Eren, Grisha and Carla, I haven’t had anyone for nearly eighteen years,” Evelyn said.

  
“You had me, Eren and Armin, did we not count, do we not count now, our squad is a family now,” Mikasa told her.

  
“I know that,” Evelyn said as she turned back towards the Titan. “When Armin told us that Eren had been eaten by a Titan, I thought of you first, how it would hurt you to lose him.”

  
“I love him Evie, I can’t lose him, not after all he’s done for me,” Mikasa told her.

  
“So then you must understand the anger I felt when I heard you had thrown Bertholdt under the cart,” Evelyn said. Mikasa looked down at the ground ashamed, Evelyn wasn’t going to hesitate to kill her if she came after Bertholdt.

 

“I would have done the same thing,” Mikasa said. “No one’s ever pointed at gun at me before, everyone always says they’re intimidated by me but not you, you actually pointed a gun and threatened to shoot me if I took another step.” Evelyn chuckled at the notion.

  
“Hannes gave me the gun for that exact reason, to make them know I was not a force to be reckoned with,” she said. Mikasa took several steps forward and looked at the Titan. She would kill it herself, but she had killed many Titans, Eren hadn’t even killed one with his blade and she knew this one deserved to be the first.

 

“I shouldn’t have done it, but I saw him change and then when he was human again I could see the way you were looking at him, the truth had been revealed and you were still looking at him with love, I don’t understand it, but I can’t judge you for it,” Mikasa said.

 

“Perhaps now that Eren has discovered his Titan powers, you will understand it,” Evelyn said to her. The sound of footsteps caught their attention as Armin and Eren walked up to them.

  
“We’re here, what did you want to show me?” Eren asked. Evelyn pointed to the Titan which raised its head a little.

 

“Recognise this one, we found it in the valley, Hange needs to do some research first but when that’s over…you get to play executioner,” she said to him. Eren stared up at the title, the memory flashing before his eyes of that Titan killing his mother. Anger and grief boiled up within him, he had no weapon to fight with instead he just dropped to his knees and stared up at the Titan that grinned down at him.

 

“Five years…I thought it had already been killed,” he said.

  
“You really think Hannes and his crew could have killed this, didn’t you explicitly say that Hannes ran away from this one?” Evelyn asked him.

  
“Like a coward yes,” Mikasa confirmed.

  
“But why is it here?” Eren asked her.

 

“I brought this damn thing back for you Eren, Bertholdt spent six hours as a Titan to carry four of these stupid things back for Hange’s research, I knew bringing this one back was going to cause your goddamn trauma to resurface but I brought it back so you could get closure, you get to wrap up the story on Carla Yeager, you get to let her finally have peace, you get revenge, you know what I get out of this, I get nothing. We were friends Eren, I remember when Grisha told me you was born, I remember seeing you as a baby, I wasn’t very old but I remember him being so happy, so proud of you, what happened to that friendship, what happened to that promise I made after that day?” Evelyn said to him, feeling a strong swell of sadness. Eren looked at the floor.

 

* * *

 

 

_“What do we do now, we don’t have anyone.”_

_“We have each other Eren, the four of us are still here I’ll look out for you guys.”_

_“Why would you do that?”_

_“I promised Grisha I would, we stick together now.”_

 

* * *

 

 

The next few days after she made that promise they had enlisted in the military, they met everyone and that was when things started to change. Eren and Evelyn started to have different views of the Colossal Titan, they would argue, fight, throw punches, when she broke his jaw she realised that she had failed Grisha. She walked away from the Titan, past Eren and back towards the Fortress mess hall. As the rich smell of bakes potatoes and cheese reached her senses, she felt nauseous, perhaps she should skip dinner.

 

* * *

 

 

In the washroom, Bertholdt sat in a freezing cold bath cooling himself off. That Titan form was too damn hot to handle for six hours.

 

“So I take it the day went well,” he heard Reiner say to him, entering the washroom.

 

“I hate my Titan, I like being sixty metres high but fuck me do I hate how hot it gets in there,” Bertholdt replied as he placed a cold compress on his head.

 

“Mine’s no better, you ever smashed your head through a wall, it hurts, I spotted Armin and Annie having a little chat this morning, seems they’re up to something,” Reiner said.

  
“You’re just paranoid, Evie told me that Annie has a crush on Armin, she’s probably trying to flirt with him.”  


“Whatever, her role is up in a few days when we set off for Shiganshina, depending on what happens there, I have to get moving, we’re due to report back,” Reiner informed him.

  
“Well you better tell Zeke I got executed, we can’t have Marley know I’m an enemy of the state now,” Bertholdt said in a rather nonchalant fashion.

 

“Don’t tell me you actually like these people?” Reiner asked him.

  
“Armin’s smart, Eren’s a bit of a bastard but he can hold a conversation at least, Mikasa is just scary but she’d give Pieck a run for her money and there’s Evie, who might as well be one of them, she has lived here all her life,” Bertholdt replied.

 

“I don’t like what’s happened to you,” Reiner said.

  
“Reiner, I love you, truly, you’re my best friend, but at least the people here never kicked me in the ribs and called me a murderous he-devil who should have died with his mother,” Bertholdt said.

  
“Yes, but we enlisted to get away from that.”

 

“No you enlisted to prove to that ingrate you call a father you were deserving of his blood, I enlisted because I had bigger ambitions.”

 

“You cried when you were told you were going to get the Colossal Titan power,” Reiner said. Bertholdt gave him a hard stare and held up his arm to reveal an M-shaped scar.

 

“Well at least Annie still brings up Marcel!” there was a thud as Reiner punched the brick. He looked at his knuckles which were now bleeding and blood had stained the wall.

  
“I could have saved him,” Reiner said. He left the washroom as Bertholdt stared up at the ceiling, no one could have saved Marcel that day.


	19. Something Inside That Stirs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bertholdt dreams of Ryder and Evelyn learns Annie's secret.

That evening Reiner had gone for a walk and Annie was left to tell Evelyn that she was a Titan with Armin and Bertholdt.

 

“Three Titans and you’re okay with this Armin?” Evelyn asked him.

  
“I am, it makes sense that all three of them would be Titans, four if this Marcel had lived, which means the Jaw Titan is out there somewhere,” Armin said.

  
“That could be anybody, if the Titan turned back into a person, who knows what happened to them,” Evelyn said.

  
“I think it best we find out, Reiner won’t dare transform yet,” Bertholdt said.

  
“Let’s get through the expedition first and then we’ve completed that I’ll head to Stohess to get the latest from Marco, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get a tour of the palace,” Annie said to them.

  
“I agree, we have to set off in a week, if we focus on getting through this expedition beyond the wall, we have more options for figuring out the next move,” Armin agreed. “Are you okay Evie, you look pale?” he could see colour draining from her face.

  
“I’m fine,” she said, a bald-faced lie of course, she’d felt awful all day. “We should rest, I have to be Hange’s assistant again tomorrow and become a personal dentist to ‘Travis’.”

  
“Travis?” Annie asked.

  
“Well since Sawney and Beane disintegrated we now have Travis, Geraldine, Blossom and Mary-Angela, you’d think they were those goddamn dogs the King adores so much,” Evelyn said. Bertholdt smirked a little at the comparison.

  
“I’m off to bed too, I have to train tomorrow.” He gave Evelyn a kiss on the forehead and returned to his room. Everyone soon settled down for the night, the Titans were silent, nailed down, and Reiner sat on the fortress walls. He watched the scenery and wondered what he was going to tell Zeke.

  
“Sorry commander but Bertholdt was stupid enough to think with his dick and managed to get himself killed,” Reiner said to himself.

  
“Wouldn’t it be easier to say he fucked your sister and you killed him for it?” Ymir suggested. He turned to see Ymir walking over to sit down.

  
“Eavesdropping are we?” he asked her.

 

“A specialty of mine, I saw you brooding up here and thought I’d ask what’s up and also ask to hold your hand,” she replied snorting at the hand comment.

 

“I wanted to bond with her as a sibling,” Reiner explained as she sat beside him.

 

“Reiner, you and Evie have been sibling bonding since we all met, now enlighten me who is Zeke?” Ymir asked him.

 

“Why should I tell you?” Reiner asked her back.

  
“Because if you do I’ll tell you a secret of my own,” Ymir said. An interesting offer, Reiner thought, but what secret would she have?

 

“Zeke is my commanding officer from back home, he is a smart man, very dedicated…kinda hot too,” Reiner admitted.

 

“Okay, well my secret is I, like our boy Bertholdt, am not from the walls, I’m like you…from Marley,” she said to him. Reiner’s jaw dropped a little in surprise.

  
“You’re not…you’re from Marley too, but how?” he asked her.

  
“About sixty years ago, I was given a name, but that name got me turned into a Titan and sent here, I wandered, lost, alone…an agonising nightmare of feeding and wandering and then one day, four children wander into my path and I eat one of them…and then I awake and I see the stars and I realised I was me again,” Ymir told him. Reiner gasped, the Titan from the day Marcel died.

  
“You…you ate Marcel?” he asked her.

 

“Was that his name, I get flickers in my dreams, of a boy, I am in the same boat as Bertholdt, I love Krista with all my heart, but I’ve got this…power within me, unbeknownst to me that I have not dared use, would she love me even as this monster?” Ymir asked as she clenched her fist. Reiner sighed, why was it even a question.

  
“She wouldn’t care, she’d love you all the same, me…I don’t have anyone, no one would love me or my…my Titan,” Reiner said, no use hiding the truth from Ymir of all people.

  
“Your Titan, which one is that?”

  
“The one in the armour who smashed the Trost gate in, Bertholdt was supposed to do that but he smashed something else instead,” Reiner replied. Ymir started laughing and raised her hand for a high five which Reiner accepted.

  
“I’m using that one, cheer up Braun,” she said to him. “There’s better days ahead.”

 

* * *

 

 

In the fortress, in the room he was sharing with Reiner, Armin and Eren, Bertholdt slept uneasily.

 

* * *

 

 

_“You could make it past twenty-five with that strength.”_

_“Thank you sir.”_

_“Wouldn’t trust this gift with anyone else, do you think you could do one thing for me?”_

_“What sir?”_

_  
“I’ve always believed in Ymir’s War Horn, I’ve searched for years and now that my time is up, I want you to find it, find the Horn, blow it and become a God, if you can handle the death of your friends that is.”_

_“I…I don’t know, where would I start?”_

_“I hear rumours that the King of Paradis might have it, it sure ain’t in the old temple, try and find it.”_

* * *

 

 

_“Oh this is it, the day I die, remember the goal kid.”_

__  
“RARGGGHHHH!”  
  


_“Remember what I told you Bertholdt, find the War Horn.”_

_  
“RARGGGHH_

_“Find the War Horn, FIND IT-AHHHHHHHHHH!”_

* * *

 

 

“FIND IT!” Bertholdt yelled as he awoke still in the room, Armin and Eren staring at him in shock.

  
“Bertholdt, are you okay?” Eren asked him.

 

“Where am I, am I human, where is it?” he asked them, breathing heavily.

  
“You’re here with us, you’re human, you’re alive, what happened to you?” Armin asked him.

  
“I dreamt of the man who was the Colossal Titan before me, it’s rare, but when I have those dreams they’re convoluted, this one was clear, I have to find it,” he said.

  
“Find what?” Eren asked.

  
“The source of power that made the Titans,” Bertholdt said. “I have to find Ymir’s War Horn.” Eren and Armin looked at each other and back at Bertholdt.

  
“Who’s Ymir?” Armin asked.

  
“She was a Princess who was given a gift, it came with a price but for thirteen years she was a Goddess, she had nine warriors who served under her and when she died her soul was ripped into nine pieces and scattered among them. The souls are passed down to people who are worthy of carrying them, but if all nine pieces are brought together and the War Horn is blown one last time, the Titan curse is broken…at the price of eight lives, only one of the nine warriors who carry the souls will live.”

 

“Could such a thing really exist?” Armin asked him.

  
“It has to, I’ve never believed in the Devil of the Earth, even if it was the story we were told, I believed in something bigger.” Bertholdt lay back in bed and stared up at the ceiling, of all the times to start experiencing Ryder’s memories. He wanted to remember something happier, like the day he met Evelyn on their first day of training. She had stood there in front of him and when Shadis addressed her, she did not speak, instead she turned away from him that was the first time he had heard her mention the Colossal Titan.

 

* * *

 

 

_“So you think you too good for the Military Police, what do you want to do when you’re through with training.”_

_“I’m going to find that Titan that broke the wall.”_

 

* * *

 

 

He thought that she wanted to kill that Titan initially until the fight with Eren where she proclaimed that his Titan had saved her life, it made him happy, he didn’t destroy her life like he first thought.


End file.
